Hammond announces £7.6m handout to repair Wentworth Woodhouse, but author society says it did not inspire Pemberley, despite chancellor’s claims

Philip Hammond’s claims that he was saving a stately home that inspired Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice have been rubbished by the author’s official society.

The chancellor announced a £7.6m handout in Wednesday’s autumn statement to repair Wentworth Woodhouse in Rotherham, believed by some to be the real-life Pemberley, home of the novel’s Mr Darcy.

Announcing the boost for the Grade I-listed building, Hammond told MPs: “It is said to be the inspiration for Pemberley in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.”

But in a statement to the Guardian, the Jane Austen Society said there is no evidence Austen ever went to the house or that a character such as Fitzwilliam Darcy could ever have afforded to live there.

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“There is absolutely no evidence that Jane Austen ever travelled further north than Lichfield in Staffordshire,” a society spokesperson said on Wednesday. “There are other places such as Chatsworth, which lay claim to be the model for Pemberley.”

Wentworth Woodhouse is Europe’s largest private home, sitting on 82 acres of land and believed to have more than 350 rooms. It took 25 years to build in the 1700s and once employed 1,000 staff, including a bear keeper and a “state bed maker”.

However, Chatsworth in Derbyshire – which is also a contender – has the benefit of Austen having been recorded as visiting the county in 1811, two years before her book was published.



The Duke of Devonshire said on Wednesday: “Some people say Chatsworth is the inspiration for Pemberley and some people say its Wentworth Woodhouse – we’d have to ask Jane Austen for a definitive answer. Either way, as a member of the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, I’m delighted with the news that the government is to step in with a grant for the preservation of this wonderful building.”

In 1943, when the seventh Earl Fitzwilliam died, Wentworth was targeted by the Labour minister for fuel and power, Manny Shinwell, during a national coal shortage. Shinwell ordered mining right up to the windows of the house, despite the coal stock being described as “not worth the getting”. Later, part of the house was used as a teacher training college and a polytechnic. It then passed through a few hands until the last owner, Clifford Newbold, died in 2015.

Describing the property as a “key piece of Northern heritage”, Hammond criticised the 1946 Labour government for allowing coal mining on the grounds of the property, an act he called an “extraordinary act of cultural vandalism”.

A £7m bid to save the property – which included £3.5m of government money – was made in 2015 by the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust to buy the mansion, its protected contents and grounds.

However, this was scuppered by an £8m bid by Hong Kong-based investment fund Lake House Group, which was accepted instead. That deal eventually collapsed in November 2015.

Marcus Binney, executive president of SAVE Britain’s Heritage, said he was relieved by the chancellor’s announcement. “As the chancellor said, it was urgent because some of the grants were due to expire and we had already extended them three times,” he said. “This house has been in terrible trouble for the last 70 years. It has proved too expensive and difficult.”

Binney said that planned restoration work, projected to cost £42m, would most likely take 15 years. Once complete, uses could include a National Trust-run opening of the main rooms and gardens; a catering space in the north wing; a business centre for young startups in the stables and 15 residential units in the home for holiday lets and short-term leases.

The Hammond announcement is unusual but not unprecedented. Nigel Lawson, in his first budget speech in 1984, announced £4m to save Calke Abbey, now in the care of the National Trust.

The campaign to save Wentworth Woodhouse is chaired by Rotherham business owner Julie Kenny. “It is absolutely fantastic – we are just so excited,” she said. “It is the jewel in the crown for sure, but it needs a massive investment to secure it for the nation for the future and that is really important. It is the last Grade I building that is at risk and the hard work starts now.”