Cash boost for Wentworth revamp

The estate contains 26 listed buildings and monuments

The restoration of the Wentworth Castle estate near Barnsley has received a £1.5m boost from regional development agency Yorkshire Forward.

The cash award means the estate has now reached its target of £15m to pay for the first phase of the project.

It will not open fully to the public until the first phase ends next year.

Work will then begin on restoring the Victorian Conservatory, which featured on the BBC's Restoration series, and the gothic folly, Stainborough Castle.

Richard Evans, director of the Wentworth Castle Trust, said the Yorkshire Forward funding was "tremendous news and a huge relief".

"I am sure it will be a real boost for the Barnsley area," he said.

"However, we all know that our work here has really only just begun, and we have so much more to do.

"Even with a generous £15m budget, we can't hope to fully complete the restoration of this magnificent heritage site."

'Sublime' parkland

He said the conservatory work alone would cost about £5m.

Wentworth Castle was described by presenter Griff Rhys Jones in the first series of Restoration as "one of the nation's most sublime parkland estates".

Many of the 26 listed buildings and monuments across the estate are being saved from dereliction thanks to the project.

New facilities for visitors and the local community will be created, as well as visitor trails through the restored historic gardens and parkland. As part of the landscape restoration, more than 20,000 trees will be planted, many of them on land scarred in the past by open cast mining.