Stately home to use grant from Government for heating system

THE OWNER of a Grade I- listed Yorkshire stately home is to use an £ 331,000 emergency grant from the Government to replace its century- old central heating system.

The Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, which bought the Grade I- listed stately home near Rotherham for the nation in 2017, has benefitted from a grant by the Culture Recovery Fund, which was set up to provide heritage organisations with much- needed financial support following the lockdown closure period.

The windfall will enable staff to carry out a feasibility study into fully replacing the house’s central heating system – which was installed by the seventh Earl Fitzwilliam in 1908. Even though the technology was cutting edge when it was fitted, the system is now so economically inefficient that gas bills are around £ 28,000 per year.

The new, eco- friendly system would be powered by a ground- source heat pump that will drastically reduce running costs. The rest of the money will be spent on repairing underground drains, building a new mains water connection and removing asbestos from the cellars.

The Edwardian pipes and radiators are still in use in the West Front and central East Front areas of the Fitzwilliam family’s ancestral seat, which the family sold in the 1980s, having been converted to use gas fuel.

The Trust linked up with 20 other properties in the Historic Houses Association ( HHA) to put in a collaborative bid for the first round of awards from the government fund.

Wentworth was one of only six houses to benefit via the HHA bid. The Trust’s CEO, Sarah McLeod, said: “We were up against some very deserving HHA properties and are incredibly grateful.”