Talk:Wentworth Woodhouse

message: IMHO this is turning into a good article (lower case!)  Maybe it should be nominated as a Good Article? BaseTurnComplete (talk) 10:07, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Oh, please don't put it through that! a good article is simply a good article: it doesn't need to be vetted by some incompetent panel of teeners. There are many ways to spend time at Wikipedia: that's unlikely to be a fruitful one.  --Wetman (talk) 05:04, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Good Article?

message: The coordinates for the house actually designate the stables. The house is a little ways East.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.158.179.176 (talk) 01:42, 16 February 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Coordinates

message: The article says:
>> Its East Front is 606 feet (180m) long, making it the longest country house façade in Europe.
Surely, though, the 325-meter-long Catherine Palace near Saint Petersburg beats this hands down.
Or is the term "country house" understood as fundamentally different to "palace"? What would the distinction be, then?
Here's what the article on English country house has to say:
>> The great houses are the largest of the country houses; in truth palaces, built by the country's most powerful – these were designed to display their owners' power or ambitions to power. [8]
>> [8] Girouard, p2-12.
>> Girouard, Mark (1978). Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History.
Primaler (talk) 22:28, 5 July 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Longest façade 

message: Can the public visit any part of the house or grounds? I don't think this article says anything about it. 213.205.251.28 (talk) 10:30, 23 October 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Open to the public? 

message: Can it be true? Is Wentworth Woodhouse really the largest private house? I thought Blenheim Palace was the largest. --79.214.37.208 (talk) 21:04, 16 February 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: The article only says "one of England's largest houses". Don't forget WW is 2 large country houses together. Johnbod (talk) 02:41, 17 February 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: No that's not true. In the second line from the top it says: "It is also the largest private house in the United Kingdom..." (not "one of the largest"). --79.214.35.251 (talk) 18:03, 17 February 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: I was quoting Blenheim Palace. Johnbod (talk) 19:04, 17 February 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Largest private house? 

message: Substituted at 10:23, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Assessment comment

message: I've changed the wording of the heading for that section because it seems more than a little overblown. I've no doubt that the open-cast mining caused terrible damage to part of the estate, but since it only covered 99 acres out of the 15,000 acres quoted for the size of the estate elsewhere in the article I'd say it was quite a stretch to say the estate was "destroyed". Also, the article would be improved if it could clarify under what legal mechanism the mining was implemented: the way it reads now the government just sent excavators to dig up someone's private property and the owners were helpless to prevent it. Did the government/coal board have that kind of power in 1946? I feel there's a significant part of the story missing here.24.115.46.109 (talk) 01:37, 8 March 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: During the war and in the period that followed the British government wielded incredible power over people and property. Mr. Atlee's Labour Gov't inaugurated Britain's decades long experiment with socialism that continued through the 70's and yes, property rights largely went under the bus. -Ad Orientem (talk) 18:56, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

text: Yes. The mining came to within 100 feet of the house, causing the structural problems. Many felt and still feel that this was entiirely deliberate. Johnbod (talk) 19:16, 10 March 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Coal Mining v "Destruction"

message: Useful blog and evidence base here: 
https://www.historichouses.org/resources/all-resources/guest-blog-wentworth-woodhouse.html
which contains the 1947 photo as shown in the article (from 'The Sphere'), for contemporary references on the impact of coal mining on the estate see the caption. The caption (not referenced in the article??) states:
"THE PROGRESS OF OPEN-CAST COAL-MINING AT WENTWORTH WOODHOUSE 
A view showing how the excavation of the property has now reached the very doors of Earl Fitzwilliam’s historic mansion.  In issues of “The Sphere” on April 20 and 27 last year details were given of the open cast coal mining activities at this celebrated Yorkshire estate near Rotherham.  At the time a bitter controversy was raging between Mr Shinwell Minister for Fuel and Power and Mr J A Hall, President of the Yorkshire Mineworkers’ Association, the former declaring that the coal from Wentworth must  be obtained at all costs and the latter urging that further mining of the property amounted to vandalism.  Mr Shinwell won his point, and during the past 10 months the open cast workings have been extended from the parkland at Wentworth, across the gardens and right up to Earl Fitzwilliam’s historic mansion.  Much needed coal for our industrial drive has been yielded by the Wentworth site and in due course will be levelled off and prepared again for cultivation.  Agriculturalists declare, on the other hand, that real restoration is impossible as the soil has been disturbed to such depth. Wentworth Woodhouse is the largest private residence in England. Last year Lord Fitzwilliam offered it as a gift to the nation. . . " 
See also Hansard: HC Deb 16 April 1946 vol 421 cc2493-4
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1946/apr/16/opencast-operations-wentworth-woodhouse
— Preceding unsigned comment added by Ben Haywood Smith (talk • contribs) 16:27, 21 January 2021 (UTC)
thread_title: Impact of opencast coal mining at Wentworth Woodhouse