This film was among many donated to the YFA by the Chapeltown and High Green Archive. These films were made up of three different collections: High Green Secondary School throughout the 1950s; the Willie Thorne Collection of films taken during World War Two and films from the Unit 8 and Vixen cine clubs based at Thorncliffe and Stocksbridge Steelworks – on these last see the Context for Short Stop (1960). This film was one of about a dozen made during the war by local dentist Willie Thorne of...

This film was among many donated to the YFA by the Chapeltown and High Green Archive. These films were made up of three different collections: High Green Secondary School throughout the 1950s; the Willie Thorne Collection of films taken during World War Two and films from the Unit 8 and Vixen cine clubs based at Thorncliffe and Stocksbridge Steelworks – on these last see the Context for Short Stop (1960). This film was one of about a dozen made during the war by local dentist Willie Thorne of events and activities in the Chapeltown area, on the outskirts of Sheffield.  Willie Thorne (not to be confused with his socialist Labour MP namesake) was probably a member of the Chapeltown Film Society who are credited in one of the films, although information on the Society is scarce. There were many such film societies or clubs across Yorkshire at this time, but it isn’t known what become of this one – see the Context for Kelly's Eye (1972) for more on local cine clubs.  His son Alan donated the films to the Chapeltown and High Green Archive. 

The Glasshouses at Wentworth may seem a strange place to make a film about after the outbreak of war with Germany: he also filmed  the flora and fauna at Wortley Hall near Sheffield in the same year in The Wood At Wortley.  Willie Thorne filmed extensively during the war in Sheffield and Chapeltown,  and these slightly earlier films contrast with the other later films he made during the war, which include War Weapons Week, Wings for Victory, Holiday Week, Salute the Soldier Week and Ecclesfield Holiday Week 1942-1943. 

Although dated 1940, it isn’t known exactly when the film was made, probably late spring, early summer.  The so-called Phoney War, when open warfare between Britain and Germany was still of a relatively minor nature, lasted until 10 May 1940, when  German troops marched into Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.  Although preparations for war were in full swing before then, with the issuing of gas masks, air raid shelters, and the evacuation of children, during this time life was pretty much carrying on as normal.  In the immediate aftermath of May 10th the Home Guard was formed, and the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1940 was passed in the same month – although this latter only really tightened up the provisions already in force from the Act of 1939.  It would be interesting to know if Willie Thorne was making this film before or after this pivotal date on the home front.

The house, and the family that built it and lived in it until after the Second World War, together have a fascinating history.   This has been relayed in part by Dan Cruickshank in his BBC television series, The Country House Revealed broadcast in 2011.  It is also the subject of a lengthy book, Black Diamonds by Catherine Bailey – summarised by Tim Rayment in the Sunday Times. This book only really covers the twentieth century, the period covered in the sixteen tons of family documents destroyed by the last Earl Fitzgerald in July 1972 in a bonfire that lasted three weeks.  Dan Cruickshank starts the story in 1695 when the owner William Wentworth died and left it to the third son of his sister.  This led to a feud between two cousins, Thomas Wentworth (Lord Raby) and Thomas Watson, who was gifted it.  The latter took on the Wentworth name and their rivalry lasted decades with the former taking over Stainborough country house and renaming it Wentworth Castle.  It was this feud that fuelled the building of not one but two grand houses on the same site, facing away from each other. This was not only a family a feud but also a political one, with Thomas Watson-Wentworth a Whig, and his brother a Tory. 

The house as it stands today was built over a generation or two over several decades beginning with Thomas Watson-Wentworth (the 1st Marquis of Rockingham) in the 1720s.  There are in fact two houses: the first one built in the 1720s in a baroque style, then a much grander one built later in the fashionable style, favoured by the Whigs, of Andrea Palladio.  To call this latter a ‘house’ is somewhat odd given that it is twice as wide as Buckingham Palace, has more than a 1,000 windows, and 365 rooms (another estimate is a mere 305) covering an area of over 2.5 acres, together with five miles of underground passageways, and once within a 19,000 acre estate.  Apparently it is so big that guests were given confetti to lay a trail so that they could find their back to their rooms from dinner.

At the time that this film was made Wentworth Woodhouse was owned by  William Charles de Meuron Wentworth, 7th Earl Fitzwilliam, who died in February 1943.  The property had been in the family of the Earls of Fitzwilliam – who derived their title, as with most of the nobility, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 – since 1782 (inherited from the 2nd Marquis of Rockingham).  The house was requisitioned for the duration of the war by the army, although the exact date for this is unclear – see the Context for  Dear Sergeant Or The Story Of Rough Riding Motorcycling Course (1944) which has more on the history of the house. 

For two centuries the Rockinghams were the most influential family in Yorkshire and the biggest employers.  Fitzwilliam was the Lord Lieutenant of the county, a Baron before becoming an Earl, and then in 1746 made a Marquis for his role in defending the Hanoverians against the second Jacobite rebellion.  During the 18th century Cruickshank describes the house as an “election winning machine”.  The second Marquis amassed the equivalent of around £4 billion in today’s money from his lands in England and Ireland, doubling the size of the estate.  As Prime Minister he led the Rockingham Whigs against King George III, seen as a Tory sympathiser.  Then got their money from the mining of coal  – with the first deep mine in 1795 – producing 300,000 tons of coal a year. 

During the war the area just to the outside of the estate was used for open cast mining of coal, owing to the shortage of coal and experienced coalminers: the Bevan boys were not as trained as those who went into the army.  Willie Thorne filmed this also, Outcrop at Wentworth 1943.  After the war, using the wartime Defence Act, which was still in force granting Emergency Powers, the government requisitioned the Park and  formal gardens around the house.  Then, with the mines being nationalised in 1945, Manny Shinwell, the Minister of Fuel and Power, ordered 98 acres of the parkland surrounding the house to be also dug up for open cast mining, based on the argument that this was needed at the time. 

This meant the destruction of a much loved area, with many old trees being felled.   This led to a protest, not only from the owner, Peter Fitzwilliam, but from locals, including coal miners themselves, who used the Park for recreation.  Fitzwilliam commissioned a report from Sheffield University which claimed that only poor coal could be had and that the plan was not worth it, proposing instead further deep mining.  It was argued that Shinwell, a strong opponent of heredity titles, was merely being vindictive.  Even the President of the Yorkshire NUM wrote to Attlee, the Prime Minister, protesting.  Yet despite all the lobbying Shinwell won through. 

It isn’t clear whether it was this that led to the glasshouses being pulled down, or when this was.  Nor is it clear when they were first erected.  In all probability they would have been built during the high point of the building of great glasshouses, or  greenhouses as they are usually called, in the early to mid-Victorian era.  The glass tax was abolished in 1845, and in 1847 James Hartley invented sheet glass.  it was  Joseph Paxton who led the way, first at Chatsworth in 1837, inspiring the Palm House at Kew, completed in 1840, and then designing the great Crystal Palace, built in 1851 to house the Great Exhibition of that year.  Paxton became a millionaire from, among other things, selling small greenhouses to amateur gardeners.  The Glasshouses at Wentworth were erected against the north and south facing walls, which became warm as they contained heated flues.  These allowed for the growth of exotic fruit such as peaches, pineapples and apricots.  For more on the historical background to the glasshouses, and for a map of the gardens in the 1930s, please see the notes and map attached to the Comments page by Professor Melvyn & Mrs Joan Jones, of Chapeltown & High Green Archive.

In 1949 Lady Mabel Fitzwilliam, the sister of Billy Fitzwilliam, the 7th Earl, with whom she had sharp political differences, managed to get it turned into a college for female physical education teachers, up until 1974 bearing her name (there had been a plan for it to house homeless families) .  It later merged with Sheffield City Polytechnic and reverted back to its original name.  In the meantime, the Fitzwilliam family lived in the smaller East House until selling it in 1989, after the college had vacated it.  It was sold again, for just £1.5m, to the brothers, Paul, Marcus and Giles Newbold, and is being restored.  There still is a garden centre there which can trace its roots back to this time.

References

Catherine Bailey, Black Diamonds: The Rise and Fall of a Dynasty, Viking, 2007.

Wentworth Woodhouse, Rotherham The Unofficial Website

A Short History of Enclosure in Britain

Tim Rayment Sunday Times