'Chapel restoration will take you back in time'

A team restoring a historic stately home near Rotherham has set the renovation of its chapel as a target project for 2026.

The Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, which took over the running of the country house in 2017, has set some key projects to complete in time for its 10th anniversary - with the 18th-Century chapel among them.

Repairing the chapel will cost about £500,000 - a small project compared with many of the house schemes - but the trust hopes the restoration will attract new visitors, including couples looking for a wedding venue.

Trust CEO Sarah McLeod said: "When it's restored you will be able to go and sit in there and it will be exactly as it was in the 18th Century."

The house had been suffering from leaks and damp, so roof repairs were carried out.

But inevitably as the building dried out, other problems emerged. In the chapel it led to decorative moulding coming away from the ceiling.

The flagstone flooring needs repairing and the pews are in a poor state.

Ms McLeod said: "The really big thing in the chapel is everything's very dirty.

"So we need to do that really deep clean."

The renovation of the chapel will see a collection of paintings depicting Christ, St Paul and 11 of the 12 Apostles being restored to their former glory.

The artworks are by the Flemish painter Gerard Seghers, a contemporary of Rubens, and are thought to date back to the 1630s.

They were in the chapel when the trust took over and house records suggest they could have been bought in 1789.

Following a fundraising campaign the paintings, most covered in a very thick layer of coal dust, dirt and yellow-brow varnish, were sent to London for restoration.

Simon Folkes, a picture restorer and conservator for more than 40 years, worked on the paintings of St Thomas and St Jude Thaddeus.

He said: "The layer of grime and dirt was phenomenal.

"The coal dust that has settled on the picture surfaces made them look almost impenetrable and difficult to see, but as a result of even just wiping off the surface grime, the picture started to come to life."

The final painting in the set of the Apostles is in a private collection and the Preservation Trust is hopeful it may be able to take it on loan in the future to complete the set.

The organisation has also decided to focus efforts in 2026 on developing a Heritage Skills Centre to tackle the shortage of skilled craftsmen and women.

Since taking on the historic building, the trust has discovered aside from the cost of repairs, finding skilled tradespeople able to repair old properties is a challenge.

Ms McLeod said: "There is a major shortage of people with the skills to do traditional heritage work in the UK.

"A lot of the people that can do that work are sort of coming up to retirement age and we're going to see a big drop-off over the next few years."

The trust wants to encourage young people to think about learning traditional trades like heritage stone masonry, conservation joinery and lime plastering.

The skills centre is now in the development stage, with the trust seeking to appoint trainers and identify ways to recruit potential students.

Ms McLeod said: "We want to set up a permanent centre where we train people, where they will get to experience working in a classroom setting, but also to be able to work on this fantastic site in terms of the repair and restoration of it."

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North