Wentworth Woodhouse dinner
13th March 2025Mansion House
One of the current Lord Mayor's charitable projects is to help with the restoration of the Wentworth Woodhouse stately home, near Rotherham, which was supposedly the largest private residence in the UK until its sale by the owning family in the 1980's. It is now owned by the Wentworth-Woodhouse Preservation Trust which is aiming to turn it into a centre for the preservation of historic crafts, using the vast amount of restoration work required to recreate the required craft skills, with the help of the Livery Movement companies. They have already spent £30m and need tens of millions more to complete the work!
The Trust held a charity dinner at the Mansion House to help raise money for the Trust. Originally it was to have been hosted by Dame Julie Kenny, Past Master of the Cutlers in Hallamshire and the driving force behind the purchase of the property by the Trust and the plans for the restoration. Sadly she passed away a few weeks ago, so in many respects the dinner was an opportunity to recognise her achievements.
Guests included the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, the former Lord Chancellor Lord Hammond, the current Defence Secretary, John Healey, who is also the constituency MP for Rotherham, who gave a very good speech, paying tribute to Julie Kenny who he knew well. The Kings Private Secretary also read out a letter from the King, who has been involved with the project as well.
Carolyn and I went because I sat next to Julie Kenny when she was a guest at one of our company dinner's a couple of years ago, and we found that our businesses were around the corner from each other in Hellaby, Rotherham.
It was a very enjoyable but moving evening, and we are looking forward ot visiting the house in June to see how the work is progressing.