50- Wentworth part 2

We walked throughb the village and passed one of the pubs, The George and Dragon, we thought about going in, as it was so hot, but decided maybe on the way back. However Lou noted that at the side of the pub there was a small beer-off. Duly noted, on our return back to the carpark, Lou popped in and bought himself three of the local brewed beers, all of which he says were rather good!


We headed towards the grounds of the local Church which we had passed as we came in; However Wentworth has two churches, the Old and the New Church.

We walked up this beautiful green and leafy avenue towards what is called the New Church.




The New Church is Victorian Gothic in style and was commissioned in 1872 by the 6th Earl Fitzwilliam at a cost of around £25,000 in memory of his parents. the Church was designed by James Loughborough Pearson ) and has been described by architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as "a very fine, sensitive, and scholary piece of Gothic revival".






Here's another picture of the New Church taken from the side... just so that you can see how grand it truely is. It can seat over 500 people, much more than the village population at this present time or when it was built! if you want to know more about the New Church it has it's own web site, just click on the link, and where you can find out much more. we didn't go in as we had the dog with us, something to go back and explore in more detail later.

Oh and it even has it's own moat!

We then walked across to the Old Church, a short distance away from the New Church, which is sadly now more of a ruin, though they do still hold services and concerts there. Belived to have Medeival origins, the church has some wonderful mouldings dating back to the late 13th century.

The church, which is now maintained by the Churches Conservation Trust, was closed on the day we were there but is normally open to visitors on the Spring Bank Holiday weekend; there was also an otice there that stated that it was possible to arrange access to have a look round inside at other times. Apparently, the remaining building is home to a collection of monuments to various generations of the Wentworth family, Thomas Wentworth (1587), William Wentworth (1614), Thomas Wentworth (1641) and William Wentworth (1685).

You can also access the Fitwilliam family vault by a tunnel from the graveyard on these open days.. again something to go back and have a further look at!

The graveyard itself is wonderful to walk round, especially if you are like myself, and have alove of old graves. I get a real 'feel' of history and conncetion when I look at headstones, some of which go back to the 16th and 17th century.

I took a few pictures of various stone which got my attention...

This one is of Elizabeth Bales, who died in October 1761, aged 4 years old, and followed by her brother who died in 1768.

Another one near by in emmory of two children, of George and Hannah Hoyland who died in 1781 & 1784, aged 3years old and 2 years old.

There were not only graves of children, of which there did seem to be a lot, but we found one which was the headstone of a Hannah Jennet, who had been the hosuekeeper of Charles Watson-Wentworth, the second Marquis of Rockingham (1730-82).


Hannah was 64 years old when she died, which I imagine was good age for those times.

This is this the grave of Mary hardy, who died ages 26, in Febuary 1768, I love the little angel on the top of the headstone. Intresting is the verse at the bottom of the stone, which states; 'You that are young and do pass by, I was young and here must lie, My marriage bed is in the dirt Yet hopes ro rise amonst the 'few' (I think) '

One has to wonder what her story was....

Around the back of the church is the entrance to the vault, where two chamfered slabs of stone, which weigh over forty tons each, cover the entrance. The vault is then surrounded by ornate iron fence on which there is an inscription, which reads

"This place of burial was constructed A.D. MDCCCXXIV By William Earl Fitzwilliam and Charles William Viscount Milton for the Wentworth branch of their descendants in the hope that they may pass through things temporal, that they lose not the things eternal."

The vault was built around 1824, by William Wentworth Fitzwilliam and his son Charles William John Wentworth Fitzwilliam, for William as he had said that when he died he did not want to be covered in dirt and stones.

Lou took the picture of myself at the Church to show where we had been, as part of the critera!







And I took one of Lou, William and Shea, as we set off back down the tree lined Avenue!

We left the Churches and walked back towards the carpark, and to another pub called The Rockingham Arms, where

we had a drink and a snack to eat, ebfore heading off home.

I have to admit I forget to take a photo of the food, but I had a glass of white wine, and a rather nice Jacket potatoe with Tuna mayonaise, while Lou, had a large lemonade ( he was driving)and a steak sandwich, William shared ours and had a portion of chips of his own, and a glass of fresh jucie! Though I have to say William decided to share most of his, and ours, with Shea.

So here is a picture of Shea and William after Shea had eaten all our food and was looking to see what else she could find!

There was lots to see at Wentworth and we only really scraped the surface, I do hope we can get back there and see some more of this facinating village and find out more about it's eleaborate history.