Handover from Richard to Barbara

Thu, Jun 27th 2019 at 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Richard will be handing over the Baton to Barbara - Wortley Hall
The Board Room, (allegedly it was the sitting room of former Lady Wharncliffe)


Situated within 26 acres of beautiful Yorkshire countryside and managed woodland, the grand stately home of Wortley Hall invites you to relax in a warm and welcoming venue that is steeped in history and grandeur. 

South Yorkshire’s Wortley Hall has a rich history – it was originally the ancestral home of the Earls of Wharncliffe, the Lords of the Manor of Wortley. Wortley’s earliest recording in history is with the mention of Alnus de Wortley, noted in the Pipe Rolls for 1165. Sir Thomas Wortley, born in 1440, lived in the Manor Wortley, believed to be the original Wortley Hall. His grandson, Sir Richard Wortley, rebuilt Wortley Hall in 1586. During the English Civil War, Sir Francis Wortley commanded a loyalist garrison at nearby Tankersley, and led the battle of Tankersley Moor, where he was captured by the Roundheads and taken to the Tower of London. Wortley Hall then fell into decay until the mid-18th century. When Edward Wortley commissioned the rebuilding of the Hall in 1800, James Archibald Stuart Wortley and his wife Caroline Creighton took up residence. The planning, landscaping, ornamental planting and the ultimate beauty of the current grounds, are attributed to Lady Caroline. Further repairs and extensions to the Hall were made mainly during the Victorian period. During the 1939-45 war, parts of the Hall were occupied by the Army, and after 1945 the Hall once again began to fall into a state of disrepair.

In 1950 The Wharncliffe family decided to give up the hall and it was available to lease.Vin Williams, addressed other local labour movement activists outlining a proposal that Wortley Hall could have the potential of being owned by the workers and run for the workers benefit. On 5th May 1951, Wortley Hall was formally opened as an educational and holiday centre, for the trade union, labour and co-operative movement. It was in a semi-derelict condition and the workers of South Yorkshire and surrounding areas carried out most of the repairs and restoration voluntarily and managed to restore the original features including the painted ceilings, ornamental friezes and wood carvings.

Today, Wortley Hall is now a company in its own right, and is still a member of the co-operative union. Any operating surplus is spent on the maintenance and upkeep of the Hall. This is a grand venue steeped in history, and its heritage and values are still strong aspects of its identity to this day.

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Stainborough Rotary Club is very active in the community, supporting worthy causes such as Centrepoint, Silkstone Scout Camp and Young People’s leadership programme. The Club also helps Santa with his Sleigh every Christmas.

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Enthusiastic volunteers helping to create the vital water borehole.  Water = life !!

We have close links, over many years, with Ho in Ghana. We have helped to fund the building of a Women's Co-operative, a Rotary Community Hall, a Street Children's centre, a water borehole and now the building of a sand dam.

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