Posthumous award for woman who helped save mansion

Dame Julie Kenny has been given a posthumous award for her work to save Wentworth Woodhouse.

The businesswoman, who died in February aged 67, was chosen by Rotherham Civic Society (RCS) to receive the Sheila Cameron Award for Outstanding Community Service.

Dame Julie steered a project to save the Grade I listed stately home, which led to the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust's successful purchase of the site in 2017 and a 25-year restoration and regeneration project.

RCS vice chair Dr David Sykes said the award was in recognition of her "outstanding work in saving and developing Wentworth Woodhouse".

The award was presented to her daughter Charlotte Kenny-Martin, and one of her two sons, Laurence Kenny.

Laurence said: "It is almost a year since we lost our cherished mum and we feel very privileged to receive this award on her behalf.

"She was captivated by Wentworth Woodhouse's beauty while High Sheriff of South Yorkshire in 2012 and was determined to restore it to its status as a beacon of the nation's built heritage.

"Unfortunately Mum will never see that vision fully-realised, but she certainly made her mark in this great story."

Sykes said: "In the task of updating Rotherham while keeping and commemorating the best of its past, only a few projects have been outstanding and of those, the rescue of Wentworth Woodhouse seemed the hardest and greatest.

"No scheme of this size can be carried out single-handedly, and the trustees, volunteers and staff earn a lot of the applause. But it also needs a leader, and those people will know how much Dame Julie's leadership meant.

"This award expresses our thanks, and also our pride and enjoyment in the house she saved."

Born in 1957, Dame Julie grew up in Sheffield before leaving home aged 18 to become a legal secretary in Cornwall.

In 1986, she co-founded the electronic security equipment company Pyronix, which grew into an award-winning global business trading across 65 countries.

She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2019, in recognition of her successful five-year campaign to purchase Wentworth Woodhouse and her role as leader of the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust.

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