Home from stately home…Lovers of Wentworth Woodhouse can now buy a touch of the mansion’s most iconic heritage features for their own little palace.
Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, tasked with saving the magnificent Grade I listed masterpiece in Rotherham from decline, has created a gift collection featuring its most famous features.
Visitors to the new gift shop, sited in what was once the Butler’s Bedroom in the 1700s, can now take home their very own image of Whistlejacket, the Marquis’s famed racehorse.
The 18th century masterpiece painted by George Stubbs, which now hangs in the National Gallery, is reproduced on classy canvas shoulder bags, journals and prints.
Prints of the intricately patterned floor of the Marble Saloon grace a collection ranging from classy cushion covers to tea-towels and oven-gloves.
Meanwhile, hand-painted wallpaper commissioned by the 4th Earl Fitzwilliam some 230 years ago for the Green Dining Room features on another giftware range.
Derbyshire artist Lucy Sheeran is also boosting income for the Trust’s restoration work with her thoroughly modern take on the mansion’s architecture. A bold and quirky impression of the instantly-recognisable East Front features on a range of items.
The new shop replaces a smaller unit which opened last year to great success.
It is sited next to the new tearoom and both venues are open to all, six days a week (Tues to Sun).
Said Visitor Operations Manager Jen Wicks: “We wanted to give our supporters mementos of the house to take away with them, and found inspiration in some of our most celebrated heritage features. Our unique collections are proving extremely popular, along with a host of other local specialities and carefully-selected quality gift ideas for garden and home.”
Hand-made, beaten silver jewellery by Rotherham designer Caroline Brookes features Wentworth snowdrops on pendants (£36) and earrings (from £12-£30) and the house also has its very own gin on the shelves.
The £38 raspberry and pomegranate infusion is made in Sheffield by True North Brew, creators of the Sheffield Gin.
In addition, Rotherham’s Chantry Brewery has renamed one of its beers the Palladian Pale Ale, after the architectural style of the East Front. The beer is already in supply at the shop and a competition is running on WWPT’s social media asking supporters to design its label.
Toiletries, jams and preserves are also being sold, alongside a selection of books. Best-sellers include works by local historian Melvyn Jones, an album of postcards of Wentworth’s past and Catherine Bailey’s famed story of the house, Black Diamonds.
Added Jen: “Our shop and cafe are open to all, not only people on our tours – we hope local people will become regulars and feel at home in their stately home.”
