Member Article

Finishing touches put to £3.74m Wentworth Castle restoration project

With just a month to go to the public re-opening of the Victorian conservatory at Wentworth Castle in Barnsley, the finishing touches are being made to the stunning £3.74m project.

The final planting schemes and the last panes of glass are being installed at the Grade II listed glasshouse which has been undergoing a major restoration scheme for the past 15 months.

The stunning glasshouse is due to open to the public on November 8, a day after its official launch by the Mayor of Barnsley, Coun Ken Richardson.

The faithful historic restoration, which has been masterminded by main contractor, William Anelay of York, is the culmination of a 10-year fundraising campaign which began after the glasshouse was featured on the BBC programme Restoration in 2003.

With only a few weeks until the re-opening, the structure is once again glistening and ready to impress visitors.

Claire Herring, director at Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust, said: “The conservatory is almost complete and standing in front of the re-cast columns and hundreds of panes of glass, it’s easy to imagine just how beautiful the original conservatory was.”

“Although we’ve had the metal structure back on site for several months, it wasn’t until the glass was fitted and the scaffolding came down that it truly reflected its former glory.

“This has been a very long and difficult journey lasting a whole decade but the end result is spectacular.”

Since the derelict conservatory was carefully dismantled last year, the original iron frame consisting of 4,000 parts, has been cleaned and re-cast where necessary. An amazing 35 layers of paints including greens, whites and creams were removed to reveal intricate detail.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .