There once was a house that stood in its own land, with follies and bearpits and Old Masters. Its exceedingly wealthy owners had everything that life could offer them. Their house was, if not the biggest, then perhaps the second biggest in the land, its walls filled with paintings deserving of a place in the National Gallery.
This house, Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham, is still there. It’s likely the biggest stately home you’ve never heard of. But its family, the Fitzwilliams, once one of the grandest in Britain, have been forgotten by history, and are no longer in residence at South Yorkshire’s forgotten palace.
Their former home really is spectacular. Two houses built back to back, Wentworth Woodhouse is the result of a family feud. When William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford died in
