An Introduction to the History of the Bretton Estate

Above / Bridge over the Cut, adjacent to Dam Head. Photo Jonty Wilde.

Richard’s grandson Thomas Wentworth Some of the early follies in the YSP is committed to protecting and developing As a registered charity and in order to keep All the kings’ men built the first documented house on the estate Bretton parkland include Lady this historic pleasure ground while making access free, YSP must raise funds to maintain Yorkshire around 1508. Henry VIII knighted Thomas in Eglinton’s Well at Dam Head on The it accessible to our visitors. There is an its internationally-renowned artistic programme, The Yorkshire Sculpture Park opened 1523 and in 1533 he became a Knight Lower Lake. The Well commemorates ambitious vision for the future – bringing history support its learning and community Sculpture in 1977, but the history of the estate reaches Marshall to the King. Thomas furnished the The baronet’s wife Grace, who to life by conserving historic features and programmes and manage the 500 acre back to Norman times. Bretton and West house with a magnificent, carved oak bed married Alexander Montgomerie, opening up new vistas, and increasing landscape. We are supported by public Park is set in Bretton were listed in William the Conqueror’s especially for the King, though it is unlikely he 8th Earl of Eglinton, after Thomas’s biodiversity by improving planting and habitats. funding, charitable grants from trusts and Domesday Book of 1086, when the land ever slept in it. The bed is now on display at death in 1675. We will continue to work with artists to create foundations and the crucial income we raise the 500 acre was settled by the de Bretton family. In the Temple Newsam House in Leeds. opportunities for people to engage through our restaurant, shop and car parks. 13th century the de Brettons intermarried with sculpture in a meaningful way and Now, more than ever, we rely on donations Bretton Estate with the Dronsfield family of the southern Around this time the house was a substantial provide educational programmes for young from visitors to maintain and develop our work. West Riding, and from then until modern timber building and in 1577 Bretton Hall people to learn creatively. Our aim is to care To find out more about how you can make near Wakefield times the estate was owned by three appeared on the cartographer Christopher for this special place where people can a difference by investing in our future interconnected families: the Dronsfields; Saxton’s first map of Yorkshire. The estate explore, be inspired and enjoy art and nature. please visit www.ysp.co.uk. in West the Wentworths; and the Beaumonts. continued to increase in size and wealth. Baronet Sir Thomas Wentworth, a Cavalier This leaflet has been made possible by Yorkshire The Dronsfields built up the estate on the edge for King Charles I, was imprisoned after a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. of the River Dearne and lived there at Bretton the Battle of Naseby in 1645 and again until 1407 when the estate passed to Agnes by Cromwell in 1657, escaping banishment Wentworth, wife of John Wentworth. Agnes to Jamaica when Cromwell died the later bequeathed it to her son Richard. The Yorkshire Sculpture Park following year. Charles II knighted him Wentworths lived at Bretton for the next four Wakefield, WF4 4LG in 1660 and created him a baronet after centuries, with the house and land passing ysp.co.uk | 01924 832631 the Restoration in 1664. through the male line of the family until 1792.

Front cover / Reclining Figure: Bunched (1985) by Henry Moore. This page / View of Bretton Hall with Promenade (1996) by Anthony Caro in foreground. Photos Jonty Wilde. Left to right / View of Bretton Hall by John Wainwright. Image reproduced with kind permission from the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, reference MD 427. Lady Eglinton’s Well at Dam Head on the Lower Lake. Camellia House, built around 1817. Archway Lodge on Huddersfield Road, built in 1807. The YSP Centre, designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley and opened in 2002. Photos Jonty Wilde.

Grand prospects In capable hands A century of change

When the Baronet died in 1675, the estate Jane Austen was distantly related It was Diana’s son Thomas, 5th Baronet and In the 1820s Robert Marnock, one of Sir Thomas was succeeded by his son, Bretton Hall College had a liberal educational In 1998 YSP bought a further 237 acres In 1766 a wealthy American passed to his brother Matthew, and it by marriage to the Bretton the last Wentworth to own Bretton Hall, who the greatest park and garden Wentworth Blackett Beaumont, who was ethos which emphasised direct contact with of parkland which had been the estate’s businessman, John Wentworth, visited was his grandson William (4th Baronet of Wentworths, who in turn were was responsible for the development of the designers of the 1800s, was taken on created Baron Allendale in 1906. His son, the materials and processes. This ethos lives on at hunting ground and Great Pasture: Longside. his distant English relative Sir Thomas Bretton) who built the three-storey, nine-bay a junior branch of the much landscape. This was designed by Richard as Head Gardener at Bretton Hall. first Viscount Allendale, was attached to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park through its innovative Longside Gallery was opened to the public Wentworth at Bretton Hall. During his Palladian limestone mansion that still stands grander Wentworth-Fitzwilliam Woods, a talented contemporary of ‘Capability’ He worked at Bretton for five years Royal Household and spent very little time at hugely successful public programmes. in 2001 after major renovation work to an stay he discovered that he had been on the estate today. In 1720 William married family who lived at nearby Brown. He introduced a rich variety of trees before designing the Sheffield Bretton, except to use it for shooting parties and old equestrian centre. made Governor of New Hampshire. Diana Blackett, daughter of Sir William Wentworth Woodhouse. It’s surely and plantings and created many of the idyllic Botanical Gardens and, later, race meetings. During the Second World War Bretton Hall College merged with the University A few years later he granted a parcel Blackett of Wallington Hall in Northumberland. no coincidence that these Yorkshire views and vistas still enjoyed by visitors today. the gardens of the Royal Botanic the hall was requisitioned by the War Office. of Leeds in 2001 and the buildings were sold to The Visitor Centre, which straddles the historic of land in the White Mountains of New Bretton Hall was most likely designed by landed gentry names all appear Society in Regent’s Park, London. Wakefield Metropolitan District Council in 2007. ha-ha, opened in 2002. The Underground Hampshire to Sir Thomas Wentworth, Wentworth’s architect friend James Moyser, in her novels: Captain Wentworth Thomas never married but bequeathed the In 1948 the house and 260 acres of land The old college remains a separate entity within Gallery followed in 2005, cleverly designed naming it after his Yorkshire home. who later worked on nearby Nostell Priory. in Persuasion, Emma Woodhouse estate to his illegitimate daughter Diana when The house was also remodelled with a were sold for £30,000 by the second Viscount the estate and YSP is working closely with a to respect the views across the historic Nearly two centuries later in 1944, in Emma, and Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy he died in 1792. Diana was already wealthy portico and bow end to the south. There Allendale to West Riding County Council. company to develop the campus. landscape. Many historic features have since this was where the Bretton Woods More buildings, features and follies in Pride and Prejudice. through her marriage to Colonel Thomas were more additions in the 1840s, including When he died in 1958 his son sold more land. been brought back into use as both Agreement, which created the were added throughout the 18th century, Beaumont, an MP for Northumberland. the impressive Stable Block and the Kennel The final act of the Beaumont family was to In 1976, the Founding Director, Peter Murray, permanent and temporary sitings for art who at that time was Principal Lecturer in Art International Monetary Fund after including the sandstone St Bartholomew’s The Beaumonts came to live at Bretton and Block, by the architect George Basevi, a pupil plant a line of trees along the access drive, works, for example the 18th century, triple- the Second World War, was signed. Chapel in 1744, the deer shelter and the Diana more than doubled the size of the hall. of Sir John Soane. When Diana died in 1831 which was renamed Beaumont Drive in 1982. Education at Bretton Hall, organised a sculpture arched Deer Shelter, now home to James pheasantries, houses for William’s the estate passed to her son Thomas exhibition in the grounds of the college. The idea Turrell’s Skyspace, an Art Fund Commission. gamekeepers, in 1748. They introduced yet more features and follies, Wentworth Beaumont. In 1949, at the instigation of Sir Alec Clegg, to establish a permanent sculpture park rapidly including the triumphant Archway Lodge Chief Education Officer for the West Riding, took hold, and Yorkshire Sculpture Park opened on Huddersfield Road in 1807, the Camellia the mansion house became Bretton Hall in September 1977, with a grant of £1,000 from House around 1817 and the ‘far famed’ College, a teacher training college Yorkshire Arts. In 1991 the Pavilion Gallery domed conservatory, believed to be the specialising in music, art and drama. opened and, later, Feilden Clegg Bradley largest of its kind in the world at the time. architects were commissioned by YSP to unite the historic Bretton Estate and landscape with a new entrance road and car park.