History

This page is dived into three sections, please select your interest below:

• Early History

• Church

• Organ

 

Early History

When South Yorkshire was dived into parishes in the early middle ages, Wentworth was initally part of the parish of Wath, along with Swinton, Hoyland and Brampton. It was not until long after the domesday survey of 1085, that  these were  split into manors, meaning that each of the subsideries of Wath were granted equal rights, and had  permission to instate thier own Priest.

In the late 1600s a report shows that Wentworth had a congregation of 400, and because of of this, it was  attached to Hoyland Church, However, Wentworth was  still part of Wath at this time, and  quite when Wentworth became a parish in its own right is unclear. There is a possbility that this was not the  case until the New Parishes Act in 1840.

The Church

For a small village, Wentworth is quite unusual as it has two churches - the partly ruined ‘Old’ Church and the Victorian ‘New’ Church.

The new church was commissioned in 1872 by the 6th Earl of Fitzwilliam at a cost of around £25,000 in memory of his parents. It was designed by John Pearson, who was the leading Victorian architect at that time. (In fact, some people will tell you that Pearson based Truro Cathedral on the design of the New Church!)

Like the Old Church, it is dedicated to the Holy Trinity and has been described by architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Prevsner as “a very fine, sensitive, and scholarly piece of Gothic revival”. It was built on an impressive scale and it's 200 foot spire is visible for miles around. The vast interior can comfortably seat over 500 people, which is far more than the population of the village at that time.

As well as this, there a number of interesting architectural features including the impressive stone vaulting and two large stained glass windows; the western by Kempe and the eastern by Clayton and Bell.

There is also a carved stone depicting the Last Supper which was donated by the 6th Earl's children to commemorate the Golden Wedding anniversary of the Earl and his wife, Lady Frances Harriet

As well as the Sunday services, the New Church is often used for art exhibitions and concerts - its excellent acoustics have also made it a popular venue for classical music recording sessions.

The Organ

(click play to listen)

At Wentworth, we have an original “Father Willis”, organ built by Henry Willis I.   It was installed in memory of the 5th Earl Fitzwilliam as an integral part of the church on its completion in 1877. 

The organ retains most of the original actions and is faithful to the “Voice of the Maker”.  It represents the finest work of Willis and is therefore of considerable historic interest.

The only significant repair work undertaken after its installation was just over 100 years later in 1980. As part of this work, a worn-out wooden tracker action was replaced with a modern lightweight aluminium one.  Some pipe restoration work took place too.

Following this, more work was undertaken January 2009 by Willis of Liverpool, the traditional organ builders who are now under new ownership.  This had to be done because the bellows, which normally last only 80 years before requiring replacement, had virtually disintegrated and the leather had degraded to the point where it was more fragile than rice paper. 

The opportunity was also taken to repair the pipes and tracer rods, these were replaced where necessary. However, a key feature of the work is that it is being restored (as far as practically possible) to the original specification, so that it can be said that Wentworth Church has (to all intents and purposes) a traditional Father Willis organ.

The organ is a two manual and consists of the following