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Wortley Hall, Sheffield.


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I visited wortley hall for the first time last year. What a revelation! I do wish some of the other stately piles were given the same treatment - a Socialist Stately Home - every home county should have one!

 

Had you seen it in the fifties you would have held a different opinion.

Today what is seen is the work of a lot of devoted people.

I will hopefully be seeing it shortly when the walk goes past.

Will you be joining it?

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I used go to Wortley Hall in the Sixties when I was in the A.E.U. had some great nights out there with my workmates and Girl friends...I remember a sort of secret door in the Library room book shelves that took you through to another room where the Bar was....And I remember The Earl of Wharncliffe as a Jazz Drummer in those days who played in a Sheffild Jazz band called the Johnnie Lennitz Quartet.

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It's in good condition now but was no so half a century ago. It was the former country seat of the Earls of Wharncliffe. The Earldom still exists but the hall passed out of their ownership due to the improvidence of the previous earl and was ironically then converted to use as a venue for working-class functions.

The lodge on top of Wharncliffe Edge was, I believe, the former hunting lodge of the earls. It was supposed to be an ancestor of the family, More of More Hall, who despatched the Dragon of Wantley over by Wharncliffe Edge. The name itself is of Anglo-Saxon origin, meaning the cliff where querns (hand-mills for making flour) were quarried, like other Wharn- or Quern-names.

 

Incidentally, it was from this family that the famous 18th-century blue-stocking, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, came. I can't say what the Earls are up to now...sic transit gloria mundi...

 

See also http://www.answers.com/topic/earl-of-wharncliffe

http://www.wortleyhall.com/history.php

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It's in good condition now but was no so half a century ago. It was the former country seat of the Earls of Wharncliffe. The Earldom still exists but the hall passed out of their ownership due to the improvidence of the previous earl and was ironically then converted to use as a venue for working-class functions.

The lodge on top of Wharncliffe Edge was, I believe, the former hunting lodge of the earls. It was supposed to be an ancestor of the family, More of More Hall, who despatched the Dragon of Wantley over by Wharncliffe Edge. The name itself is of Anglo-Saxon origin, meaning the cliff where querns (hand-mills for making flour) were quarried, like other Wharn- or Quern-names.

 

Incidentally, it was from this family that the famous 18th-century blue-stocking, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, came. I can't say what the Earls are up to now...sic transit gloria mundi...

 

See also http://www.answers.com/topic/earl-of-wharncliffe

http://www.wortleyhall.com/history.php

 

In the late 1940s early 50s. I think that the Earl lived with his mother at 'Carlton House?' which is on the lefthand side of the quiet lane that runs from, just after the Wortley cross roads, to Genoside. I recollect a dam being almost opposite side of the lane. During my travels on Wharncliffe Chase I often came across Red Deer especially near a pond which was in the middle of the chase and the Herons.

Whilst I stand to be corrected. The Duke along with his wife over the running of the pub in Wortley Village.

It's a long time since I was around those parts.

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In the early 60s (63/64?) my dad took us there one afternoon to a dog show. Not really sure why as we had no interest in dogs whatsoever, maybe it was just a Sunday afternoon run.

My big memory is that of seeing a big dog with rolls of flappy skin and a breathing problem (bulldog? boxer?) sat on a plinth with a pink rosette attached to its collar. It looked absolutely fed up.

Don't really remember the building though. Is it open to the public?

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In the early 1950s I bought some shares in Wortley Hall to finance the restoration work being done at the time by members of the Communist, Labour, & Co-Op Parties with the excepted view that they would not ever return a dividend. Over the years I've often pondered what happened to shareholding's. Has anyone any news?

 

You little closet capitalist you. ;)

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