Heritage champion honoured for saving mansion
LONG-SERVING STALWARTS of heritage and culture in Yorkshire have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for their inspiring efforts.
Julie Kenny CBE, the self-made Rotherham businesswoman whose relentless five-year campaign saved Wentworth Woodhouse for the nation, is to be made a Dame.
As the chairwoman of Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, she is an unpaid volunteer who now receives the secondhighest honour in the land for her crucial role in securing the future of the Grade I-listed Georgian stately home in Rotherham.
Her determination enabled the trust to purchase the mansion, its stables, riding school, camelia house and 83 acres in March 2017 for £7m following a campaign backed by SAVE British Heritage.
“I am amazed and humbled to receive this honour,” said the 61-year-old.
“Many times I saw in people’s eyes that they thought it could not be achieved.
“But my view is that nothing is impossible with time and energy and belief.
“And I passionately believed the house could become a beacon, its beauty drawing people from all of the world.
“I knew how proud that would make the people of Rotherham feel about their heritage again, and that jobs and skills could be created for young people.
“But the fight tested everything I had learned throughout my business life.
“It took hard work, stamina, focus and negotiation skills and above all the resolve to persevere and never to give up, even when the going got tough – and then extra tough.”
The mother-of-three, who founded a security system manufacturer in Rotherham, was awarded a CBE in 2002 for her services to industry in Yorkshire and the Humber.
She added: “There were many people that helped me along the way and this award recognises our joint achievements.”
Elsewhere, inspirational educator, author, arts, heritage and charity campaigner Mel Dyke is affectionately known in her hometown as ‘Mrs Barnsley’.
Now she can put an MBE after her name. The 82-year-old retired teacher started out as a bank worker and, despite not having HERITAGE: a degree, she went on to teach for 27 years, becoming a deputy head, a teacher training lecturer and guest lecturer at Emory University Georgia and UCLA in Los Angeles.
Mrs Dyke, of Staincross, was a miner’s daughter and also used real life stories of high achievers from the pit town to help raise aspirations – detailed in her books such as Grimethorpe Revival: Famous Faces Support a Coalfield Community.
As well as being a prolific patron of the arts in Barnsley and South Yorkshire, she was also a teacher at Athersley Lawrence Briggs Infants, Darton High School and The Oaks in Kendray, and a deputy head at Grimethorpe’s Willowgarth High School.
Of her MBE, the mother-of-two who has five grandchildren and a great-grandchild, said: “I’m absolutely thrilled.
“I am also genuinely surprised. Culture and the arts have been a big part of my life. I’ve used the stories of high achievers from the town to help inspire others – to dream realistically.”
Meanwhile, East Yorkshire businesswoman Katie Taylor has been given an MBE for services to the economy and community in Yorkshire after established Drewton’s Farm Shop on The Drewton Estate near South Cave in 2010.
She buys from a network of more than 250 Yorkshire-based food producers, farmers, growers and suppliers. FUNDING EXPERT: