Scandal, Spite & Shuttlecocks: Wentworth Woodhouse – Britain’s Largest & least Known Country House

Wednesday 2 April 2025 at 2.00 pm at the Lowther Pavilion. Guests mat attend the lecture – £10 pp (pay on door)

Lecturer: David Winpenny

This will be David Winpenny’s first visit to The Arts Society Fylde. David studied English at Birmingham University and taught for several years before joining the Countryside Commission as Co-ordinator of its National Parks Campaign. He worked for the Central Office of Information in Leeds before setting up his own public relations company. He is author of Up to a Point – In Search of Pyramids in Britain and Ireland and has written and contributed to several books for the AA. He has also written for BBC Countryfile Magazine and English Heritage Magazine. He is chairman of Ripon Civic Society, and lectures on architectural and related subjects on cruise ships and on dry land.

Further information on Davis Winpenny is available via his website.

The Lecture

With a façade more than twice the length of Buckingham Palace and some of the finest 18th century rooms anywhere, Wentworth Woodhouse, seat of the Marquesses of Rockingham and then of the Earls Fitzwilliam, is being awaken from more than half a century of slumber. The history and architecture of the house are laid out alongside the story of the warring families that built and owned it – a story of political execution, madness, child-substitution, socialist vindictiveness, royal visits…and badminton.

Caption: Wentworth Woodhouse, Dave Pickersgill. Creative Commons