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"OCASO EN LA CIMA DEL CIELO III". Mirador 4 Palos. Sierra Gorda. Querétaro.
Entered in September CONTEST: *Sunsational Sunsets* in TMI Group.
Entered in New!! Challenge 205.0 ~ May Scape ~ The Award Tree ~
THANK YOU ALL MY KIND FLICKR FRIENDS. YOUR COMMENTS AND INVITATIONS ARE VERY MOTIVATING AND APPRECIATED.
GRACIAS A TODOS MIS AMABLES AMIGOS DE FLICKR. SUS COMENTARIOS, INVITACIONES Y FAVORITOS, SON MUY MOTIVANTES Y APRECIADOS
Images and textures of my own.
Querétaro - México.
© All rights reserved.
"SUEÑO DE OTOÑO".
Entered in Mystic Autumn Challenge - November 2022
THANK YOU ALL MY KIND FLICKR FRIENDS. YOUR COMMENTS AND INVITATIONS ARE VERY MOTIVATING AND APPRECIATED.
GRACIAS A TODOS MIS AMABLES AMIGOS DE FLICKR. SUS COMENTARIOS, INVITACIONES Y FAVORITOS, SON MUY MOTIVANTES Y APRECIADOS.
Images and textures of my own.
Querétaro - México.
© All rights reserved.
See in Large !!! Ver en Grande !!!
"JACARANDAS DE PRIMAVERA".
Entered in
New! Challenge 35. ~ VIVID SPRING ~ Vivid Art ~
SPRING NATURE CONTEST - April 2021 KP
THANK YOU ALL MY KIND FLICKR FRIENDS. YOUR COMMENTS AND INVITATIONS ARE VERY MOTIVATING AND APPRECIATED.
GRACIAS A TODOS MIS AMABLES AMIGOS DE FLICKR. SUS COMENTARIOS, INVITACIONES Y FAVORITOS, SON MUY MOTIVANTES Y APRECIADOS
Images and textures of my own.
Querétaro - México.
© All rights reserved.
"MACETA Y FLORES".
THANK YOU ALL MY KIND FLICKR FRIENDS. YOUR COMMENTS AND INVITATIONS ARE VERY MOTIVATING AND APPRECIATED.
GRACIAS A TODOS MIS AMABLES AMIGOS DE FLICKR. SUS COMENTARIOS, INVITACIONES Y FAVORITOS, SON MUY MOTIVANTES Y APRECIADOS.
Images and textures of my own.
Querétaro - México.
© All rights reserved.
THANK YOU ALL MY KIND FLICKR FRIENDS,
YOUR COMMENTS AND INVITATIONS ARE
VERY APPRECIATED AND MOTIVATING.
Querétaro - México.
Images and Textures of my own.
© All rights reserved
THANK YOU ALL MY KIND FLICKR FRIENDS,
YOUR COMMENTS AND INVITATIONS ARE
VERY APPRECIATED AND MOTIVATING.
Querétaro - México.
Images and Textures of my own.
© All rights reserved
THANK YOU ALL MY KIND FLICKR FRIENDS,
YOUR COMMENTS AND INVITATIONS ARE
VERY APPRECIATED AND MOTIVATING.
Querétaro - México.
Images and Textures of my own.
© All rights reserved
THANK YOU ALL MY KIND FLICKR FRIENDS,
YOUR COMMENTS AND INVITATIONS ARE
VERY APPRECIATED AND MOTIVATING.
Querétaro - México.
Image and Textures of my own.
© All rights reserved
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∎ Created with Midjourney, further edited with Topaz Photo AI 2.4.0
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♫ I'm Calling you ♫
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"The charm of "Bagdad Cafe" is that every character and every moment is unanticipated, obscurely motivated, of uncertain meaning and vibrating with life"
∎ Bagdad Cafe - Out of Bagdad | Wiki
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∎ BAGDAD CAFE (1987) Dir. Percy Adlon
∎ Bagdad Cafe - Let's clean up
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A desert road from vegas to nowhere
some place better than where you're been
A coffee machine that needs some fixing
In a little cafe just around the bend
I am calling you
Can't you hear me
I am calling you
A hot dry wind blows right through me
The baby's crying and I can't sleep
But we both know a change is coming
coming closer, sweet release
I am calling you
I know you hear me
I am calling you
I am calling you
I know you hear me
I am calling you
A desert road from vegas to nowhere
Some place better than where you've been
A coffee machine that needs some fixing
In a little cafe just around the bend
A hot dry wind blows right through me
The baby's crying and I can't sleep
And I can feel a change is coming
coming closer, sweet release
I am calling you
can't you hear me
I am calling you
Yawn. It was inevitable I suppose. One motivated offspring and me joined the foaming hoards later in the day to catch this marvel of engineering. On the other hand, a young neighborhood kid floating by on a hover-board had not a clue what I was talking about when I told him I was waiting to see the largest steam locomotive in the world..."what's a steam locomotive?"...(sigh). He wasn't interested enough to stick around.
The Big Boy passenger special climbs the eastern approach to Terminal Railroad's MacArthur bridge on its way west out of East St. Louis, IL after a slow, plodding, day-long run up the Chester Sub from Poplar Bluff, MO.
The train will pull past the former site of Gratiot Tower, then back around in front of the Arch for some pics, before tying up for the night at the St. Louis Amtrak station.
They Motivate us to play, They motivate us to enjoy each moment we have together, they teach us how to love, they teach us loyalty, no matter what happened they will be there to cheer you up, love them.
Cloth: Mancave Event
Pose: Wrong
As the week wears down and we need to unwind. Some folks go fishing. Some folks use Yoga or they may garden. We need something to get our heads out of the work mode and enjoy activities that interest us, stimulate us and motivate us outside of our jobs.
My textures and treatments: Photoshop CS3.
THANK YOU ALL MY KIND FLICKR FRIENDS.
YOUR FAVS, COMMENTS AND INVITATIONS ARE VERY MOTIVATING AND APPRECIATED
Hannah Lee Bratz, une ancienne agente pénitentiaire, a trouvé un but derrière l'objectif de son appareil photo, en découvrant que des animaux sauvés ont trouvé leur maison !
Passant de l'application de la loi au monde compatissant du bien-être animal, le parcours de Bratz illustre le pouvoir de suivre ses passions …
___________________________________________PdF___
"GATOS"
THANK YOU ALL MY KIND FLICKR FRIENDS. YOUR COMMENTS AND INVITATIONS ARE VERY MOTIVATING AND APPRECIATED.
GRACIAS A TODOS MIS AMABLES AMIGOS DE FLICKR. SUS COMENTARIOS, INVITACIONES Y FAVORITOS, SON MUY MOTIVANTES Y APRECIADOS.
Images and Textures of my own.
Querétaro - México.
© All rights reserved
Office building "METROPOLITAN" in Warsaw, built in 2003 located at Pilsudski Square on the back of the Grand Theatre. The architect is Sir Norman Foster.
If you want to know more about this object or photo, please write to me: bernard.lubanski@gmail.com
Thank you all for your visits, faves and comments. That to me is really motivating. All the best :)
THANK YOU ALL MY KIND FLICKR FRIENDS.
YOUR FAVS, COMMENTS AND INVITATIONS ARE VERY MOTIVATING AND APPRECIATED.
Germany, Wedel, Marshland, “take-off”, the stork took me by surprise, taking off about 10 mtr in front of me while I was above him on the edge of the about 8 mtr high Elbe dike, which leads along the banks of the river Elbe, fllowing along the shore of the North Sea from Hamburg approx. 250 km to the Danish border.
👉 One World one Dream,
🙏...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you & over
15 million visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments
Of course she was motivating me to stay home and give her cheese instead of going for a bike ride… but still motivating me.
Germany, Mainau, … a peaceful "place”, near to the shore & the city of Konstanz is the location of island Mainau in Lake Constance, opposite to the shore of the City of Überlingen. It is maintained as a garden island & a model of excellent environmental practices. The island can be reached via a bridge & has a jetty for ferries.
Dahlia, there are over 40 species of dahlia, with hybrids commonly grown as garden plants. The majority types do not produce fragrant flowers, like most plants that do not attract pollinating insects through scent, they are brightly coloured, displaying most hues, with the exception of blue.
Spaniards reported finding the plants growing in Mexico in 1525, in 1787 the French botanist Nicolas-Joseph Thiéry de Menonville, sent to Mexico to steal the cochineal insect valued for its scarlet dye.
In 1963 the dahlia was declared the national flower of Mexico. The tubers were grown as a food crop by the Aztecs, attempts to introduce the tubers as a food crop in Europe were unsuccessful.
Due to the for Germany unusual advantageous climate on the island at the lake the island is called the "Flowering Island". Famous for its parks & gardens with even full-grown palm trees, cypresses & countless other Mediterranean plants, partly even tropical vegetation can grow on the drop-shaped island.
The Plants & flower-beds with are constantly renewed by the gardeners, not only the over approximately 20,000 dahlia bushes Rhododendrons of 180 different species, Azaleas or the Italian rose garden, strictly geometric, consisting of pergolas, sculptures fountains, over 1200 kinds of roses can be found on the island.
A million daffodils, hyacinth, tulips, 500-year-old wild roses & more than 30,000 other rose bushes, also palm trees & citrus fruits grow here, the palms go into the greenhouse over the winter, with a changing climate soon maybe it will not be necessary anymore.
But that has nothing to do with the island's sometimes claimed tropical climate; the lake does level out temperatures & acts a little as central heating in winter because it has stored summer heat.
But above all, the art of the skilled gardeners & their work on the Mainau making this island so unique.
👉 One World one Dream,
🙏...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you & over
17 million visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments
On my way back from the daisy field in the mountains of Ermatingen, I made a stop at the local harbour. Since the high water level of Lake Constance at the moment I got some wet feet. But who cares at this sunset :)
Thanks for all comments in the last days! It really motivates me. My alarm clock is set to 4:00 am for tomorrow :)
Spain, Valencia, …changing life by getting married, at the “Metropolitan Cathedral–Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady of Valencia”, a Roman Catholic parish church which was consecrated in 1238 by the first bishop of Valencia after the Reconquista, Pere d'Albalat, Archbishop of Tarragona & dedicated by order of James I the Conqueror to Saint Mary.
Built over the site of the former Visigothic cathedral, which under the Moors, who governed Spain for about 800 years, had been turned into a mosque. Gothic architecture, in its Catalan or Mediterranean version, is the predominant style of this cathedral, although it also contains Romanesque, French Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque & Neo-Classical elements.
Valencia is Spain's third largest metropolitan area, founded as a Roman colony in 138 BC., situated on the banks of the river Turia. The historic centre is one of the largest in Spain, this heritage of ancient monuments, views & cultural attractions makes Valencia one of the country's most popular tourist destinations. “Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències”, the City of Arts & Sciences, situated at the end of the former riverbed of the river Turia is an amazing architectonical complex for art, science & leisure time, one of the many must to visit when you come to the this city.
Valencia is famous for its gastronomic culture; one of the famous dishes from Valencia is the paella.
👉 One World one Dream,
🙏...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you & over
15 million visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments
France, Alsace, Strasbourg, Petite France, "École élémentaire publique Saint-Thomas", Saint-Thomas Public Elementary School, located in Petit France along the Ill & opposite the front side on the Rue de la Monnaie, named after the 1756 built Hôtel de la Monnaie which had been demolished for the construction of the Ecole Saint-Thomas in1905 to 1907 by architect Fritz Beblo.
In his project of the Saint Thomas school he borrows from the architecture of the Alsatian Renaissance the forms for the gables with volutes & the turrets placed at the ends of the facade. Renaissance, are treated so as to ensure a harmonious transition with the neighbouring houses. The style of the building is historicism with however a dominance for the neo-renaissance style. There are also neo-Baroque elements of Italian influence such as the entrance portal & others.
During construction, Fritz Beblo put archaeologists to work.
👉 One World one Dream,
🙏...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you & over
13 million visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments
Many thanks for all your very motivating comments and your favs :-) - I really appreciate it!!
Taken at the medieval knight's tournament and market at Castle Amerang - a four days medieval event. The historical tents shine in the beautiful sunset light...
Aufgenommen auf dem Ritterturnier auf Schloss Amerang. Das Event dauerte 4 Tage. Die historischen Zelte leuchteten im schönen Licht des Sonnenuntergangs...
China, Harbin, "Ice & Snow Festival", overview over a part of the ice sculpture area, this year themed as "Ice & Snow Olympic", honouring the 2008 Olympic Games taking place in Beijing.
All the buildings are constructed with natural ice blocks cut from the Song Hua River.
Harbin with population almost 4.5 million, is heralded as the Ice City for its well-known unbelievably impressive ice & snow recreations during the yearly international “Ice & Snow Festival” from the end of December until beginning of March. Harbin is also well known besides his important historic & economic past & present for China, for its historical Russian heritage, this cultural influence is still notable till today.
Everywhere in the City you will find ice carvings of all sizes, besides there are several expositions in different parks. The three major parks are the snow sculptures at the ark on Sun Island, they are more artistic, the Disneyland Ice Carvings Festival at the Zhao Lin Park, the Harbin Ice & Snow Worlds are gigantic & LED illuminated at night, in the centre of the city xxxxxx Festival.
Ice-lanterns can date back to ancient times. It was said that some fishermen made rough & simple ice-lanterns made of ice just for lighting. With the time passed, ice-lanterns embodied their cultural features & artistic fascination gradually of making of ice-lanterns, ice sculptures started in the 1960s.
Due to the Siberian high & Harbin in the Heilongjiang Province location above 45 degrees north latitude, the city is known for having the most bitterly cold winters among major Chinese cities. Winter Temperatures can drop to below -35°C, when I visited Harbin beginning in January the Temperature varied between -20°C & -26°C below, but with dry air.
The impressive "Ice & Snow Festival" is the greatest & unusual one in the world, therefor Harbin is also called the "Ice City".
As well the large Siberian Tiger & white tigers research centre, with about 500 tigers & a few other species, does an important work to prevent this species from extinction. The Research centre can be visited, tours in small a bus are available, passing through wide natural, separated, sections, however the focus point is to save the tigers.
👉 One World one Dream,
...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you & over
11 million visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments
To reach this place you have to climb bare foot 700 steps. This old lady was not able to stand straight but she climbed these many cumbersome steps so that she can pray in this famous Jain holy place.
China, Shanghai, Xitang, …after hours strolling through the village, it is time for us for a relaxing & refreshing drink.
Xitang is one of the ancient water towns in the Yangtze Delta area in the north of Jiashan County, located about 140 km southwest of Shanghai. The town stretches across eight sections, linked by 104 historic stone bridges. In the older parts of town, the well-preserved buildings with "patina" are set along the banks of the canals, which serve as the main transportation thoroughfares in the area.
Entry fee about 10 € p/p, if you stay in one of the charming boutique hotels, they will reimburse you 50% of the entrance fee.
In the Xitang Water Village, there are well-preserved groups of buildings of the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644 & the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911, with relatively high artistic quality & research value. The village is famous for its large number of covered corridors, lanes & bridges.
Its history dates back to at least the spring & autumn period, 770 BC–476 BC, when it was located at the border of the State of Yue & Wu. According to legend, Wu Zixu, a well-known scholar & military general, ordered to dig many canals & a pond to facilitate water transportation & to channel water to Jiashan County, therefore Xitang is also called "Xutang".
The Xitang Water Town, people who live there are not rich, so no newer modern houses have been built there. That's maybe one of the reasons why the old constructions are preserved as a whole almost without damage. In those archaic houses, besides the culture & value of the houses themselves, there are also displays of cultural relics or woodcarvings or eaves tiles collected by the house owner. To this day there are exhibitions of the ancient rare books of the owners passed down from generation to generation or rubbings from a stone inscription of a famous calligrapher.
On the roofs of some old houses here, the grass is about "one chi" tall, 33 cm ++, believing that the spirit of the former owner of the house joins with the grass, making it flourish & blessing the peace and durability of the house, as well as the prosperity of the entire town.
The "Mission Impossible III", 2005, movie featuring Tom Cruise scenes speeding with a bike over the roofs in Xitang, was leading to a boom of Xitang's popularity among tourists.
Because of the rainy climate, common ceilinged corridors have been created bordering the waterways. Each family roofs the stone-planked path in front of their house resulting in covered corridors of up to 1300 metres.
👉 One World one Dream,
🙏...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you & over
14 million visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments
Friday was a hot one here which didn't motivate too much photography time so I settled in for a quick shot of the neighbours garden when a storm rolled in.
Not the best, but it'll do in a pinch.
Hope everyone has had a good day.
Click "L" for a larger view.
FRIENDSHIP:
World can be cold and hostil. But we can always find someone to share it!
Foto original/My original photo:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wentworth_Castle
Wentworth Castle is a grade I listed country house, the former seat of the Earls of Strafford, at Stainborough, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It is now home to the Northern College for Residential and Community Education.
An older house existed on the estate, then called Stainborough, when it was purchased by Thomas Wentworth, Baron Raby (later Earl of Strafford), in 1711. It was still called Stainborough in Jan Kip's engraved bird's-eye view of parterres and avenues, 1714, and in the first edition of Vitruvius Britannicus, 1715 (illustration, left). The name was changed in 1731. The original name survives in the form of Stainborough Castle, a sham ruin constructed as a garden folly (illustration below) on the estate.
The Estate has been in the care of the Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust since 2001 and is open to the public year round 7 days a week. The castle's gardens were restored in the early 21st century, and are also open to visitors.
History
The original house, known as the Cutler house, was constructed for Sir Gervase Cutler (born 1640) in 1670. Sir Gervase then sold the estate to Thomas Wentworth, later the 1st Earl of Strafford. The house was remodelled in two great campaigns, by two earls, in remarkably different styles, each time under unusual circumstances.
The first building campaign
The first building campaign to upgrade the original structure was initiated c.1711 by Thomas Wentworth, Baron Raby (1672-1739). He was the grandson of Sir William Wentworth, father of Thomas Wentworth, the attainted 1st Earl. Raby was himself created 1st Earl of Strafford (second creation) in 1711.
The estate of Wentworth Woodhouse, which he believed was his birthright, was scarcely six miles distant and was a constant bitter sting, for the Strafford fortune had passed from William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford, the childless son of the great earl, to his wife's nephew, Thomas Watson; only the barony of Raby had gone to a blood-relation. M.J. Charlesworth surmises that it was a feeling that what by right should have been his that motivated Wentworth's purchase of Stainborough Castle nearby and that his efforts to surpass the Watsons at Wentworth Woodhouse in splendour and taste motivated the man whom Jonathan Swift called "proud as Hell".[1]
Wentworth had been a soldier in the service of William III, who made him a colonel of dragoons. He was sent by Queen Anne as ambassador to Prussia in 1706-11 and on his return to Britain, the earldom was revived when he was created Viscount Wentworth and Earl of Strafford in the Peerage of Great Britain. He was then sent as a representative in the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Utrecht, and was brought before a commission of Parliament in the aftermath. With the death of Queen Anne, he and the Tories were permanently out of power. Wentworth, representing a clannish old family of Yorkshire, required a grand house consonant with the revived Wentworth fortunes, he spent his years of retirement completing it and enriching his landscape.
He had broken his tour of duty at Berlin to conclude the purchase of Stainborough in the summer of 1708, and returned to Berlin, armed with sufficient specifications of the site to engage the services of a military architect who had spent some years recently in England, Johann von Bodt. who provided the designs.[2] Wentworth was in Italy in 1709, buying paintings for the future house: "I have great credit by my pictures," he reported with satisfaction: "They are all designed for Yorkshire, and I hope to have a better collection there than Mr. Watson."[3] To display them a grand gallery would be required, for which James Gibbs must have provided the designs, since a contract for wainscoting "as desined by Mr Gibbs" survives among Wentworth papers in the British Library (Add. Mss 22329, folio 128). The Gallery was completed in 1724.[4] There are designs, probably by Bodt, for an elevation and a section showing the gallery at Wentworth Castle in the Victoria and Albert Museum (E.307-1937), in an album of mixed drawings which belonged to William Talman's son John.[5] the gallery extends one hundred and eighty feet, twenty-four feet wide, and thirty high, screened into three divisions by veined marble Corinthian columns with gilded capitals, and with corresponding pilasters against projecting piers: in the intervening spaces four marble copies of Roman sculptures on block plinths survived until the twentieth century.[6] Construction was sufficiently advanced by March–April 1714 that surviving correspondence between Strafford and William Thornton concerned the disposition of panes in the window sashes: the options were for windows four panes wide, as done in the best houses Thornton assured the earl, for which crown glass would do, or for larger panes, three panes across, which might requite plate glass: Strafford opted for the latter.[7] The results, directed largely by letter from a distance,[8] are unique in Britain. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner found the east range "of a palatial splendour uncommon in England."[9] The grand suite of parade rooms on the ground floor extended from the room at the north end with a ceiling allegory of Plenty to the south end, with one of a Fame.
Bodt's use of a giant order of pilasters on the front and other features, suggested to John Harris that Bodt, who had been in England in the 1690s, had had access to drawings by William Talman. Talman was the architect of Chatsworth, considered to be England's first truly Baroque house. Indeed there are similarities of design between Wentworth's east front and Chatsworth. Both have a distinctly Continental Baroque frontage. Wentworth has been described as "a remarkable and almost unique example of Franco-Prussian architecture in Georgian England".[10] The east front was built upon a raised terrace that descended to sweeps of gravelled ramps that flanked a grotto and extended in an axial vista framed by double allées of trees to a formal wrought iron gate, all seen in Jan Kip's view of 1714, which if it is not more plan than reality, includes patterned parterres to the west of the house and an exedra on rising ground behind, all features that appear again in Britannia Illustrata, (1730).[11] An engraving by Thomas Badeslade from about 1750 still shows the formal features centred on Bodt's façade, enclosed in gravel drives wide enough for a coach-and-four. The regular plantations of trees planted bosquet-fashion have matured: their edges are clipped, and straight rides pierce them.[12] All these were swept away by the second earl after mid-century, in favour of an open, rolling "naturalistic" landscape in the manner of Capability Brown.[13]
The first earl's landscape
Strafford planted avenues of trees in great quantity in this open countryside, and the sham castle folly (built from 1726 and inscribed "Rebuilt in 1730", now more ruinous than it was at first) that he placed at the highest site, "like an endorsement from the past"[14] and kept free of trees (illustration, left) missed by only a few years being the first sham castle in an English landscape garden.[15] For its central court where the four original towers were named for his four children, the earl commissioned his portrait statue in 1730 from Michael Rysbrack, whom James Gibbs had been the first to employ when he came to England;[16] the statue has been moved closer to the house.
A staunch Tory,[17] Lord Strafford remained in political obscurity during Walpole's Whig supremacy, for the remainder of his life. An obelisk was erected to the memory of Queen Anne in 1736, and a sitting room in the house was named "Queen Anne's Sitting Room" until modern times. Other landscape features were added, one after the other, with the result that today there are twenty-six listed structures in what remains of the parkland.
The second earl at Wentworth Castle
The first earl died in 1739 and his son succeeded him. William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford (1722-1791) rates an entry in Colvin's Biographical Dictionary of British Architects as the designer of the fine neo-Palladian range, built in 1759-64 (illustration, upper right). He married a daughter of the Duke of Argyll[18] and spent a year on the Grand Tour to improve his taste; he eschewed political life. At Wentworth Castle he had John Platt (1728–1810)[19] on the site as master mason and Charles Ross ( -1770/75) to draft the final drawings and act as "superintendent"; Ross was a carpenter and joiner of London who had worked under the Palladian architect and practiced architectural ammanuensis, Matthew Brettingham, at Strafford's London house, 5, St James's Square, in 1748-49. Ross's proven competency in London in London doubtless recommended him to the Earl for the building campaign in Yorkshire.[20] At Wentworth Castle it was generally understood, as Lord Verulam remarked in 1768, "'Lord Strafford himself is his own architect and contriver in everything."[21] Even in the London house, Walpole tells us, "he chose all the ornaments himself".
Horace Walpole singled out Wentworth Castle as a paragon for the perfect integration of the site, the landscape, even the harmony of the stone:
"If a model is sought of the most perfect taste in architecture, where grace softens dignity, and lightness attempers magnificence... where the position is the most happy, and even the colour of the stone the most harmonious; the virtuoso should be directed to the new front of Wentworth-castle:[22] the result of the same judgement that had before distributed so many beauties over that domain and called from wood, water, hills, prospects, and buildings, a compendium of picturesque nature, improved by the chastity of art."[23]
Later history
With the extinction of the earldom with the third earl in 1799, the huge family estates were divided into three, one third going to the descendants of each daughter of the 1st Earl. Wentworth Castle was left in trust for Lady Henrietta Vernon's grandson Frederick Vernon, (of Hilton Hall, Staffordshire) whose trustees were William, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam, and Walter Spencer Stanhope. Frederick Vernon added Wentworth to his surname and took charge of the estate in 1816. Between 1820 and 1840 the old chapel of St. James was replaced with the current building and the windows of the Baroque Wing were lowered on either side of the entrance hall. Frederick Vernon Wentworth also amalgamated two ground floor rooms to make what is now the blue room. In July of 1838 a freak hail storm badly damaged the cupola and windows of the house as well as all the greenhouses within the walled gardens, yet this pales into insignificance when compared with the nearby Huskar Colliery disaster where 26 child miners lost there lives due to flooding following the hail storm. In May of 1853 a freak snow storm also caused severe damage, particularly to the mature trees within the gardens, some of them rare species from America planted by the 1st and 2nd earls. Frederick Vernon Wentworth was succeeded by his son Thomas in 1885 who added the iron framed Conservatory and electric lighting by March of the following year. The Victorian Wing also dates from this decade and its construction allowed the Vernon-Wentworths to entertain the young Duke of Clarence and his entourage during the winters of 1887 and 1889. The estate was inherited by Thomas' eldest son Captain Bruce Canning Vernon Wentworth, M.P. for Brighton, in 1902. Preferring his Suffolk estates, the Captain put the most valuable of his Wentworth Castle house contents up for sale at auction with Christies after the First World War. The paintings sold at Christie's on 13 November 1919.[24] Bruce Vernon-Wentworth, who had no direct heirs, sold the house and its gardens to Barnsley Corporation in 1948, while the rest of his estates, in Yorkshire, Suffolk and Scotland were left to a distant cousin.[25] The remaining contents of Wentworth Castle were emptied at a house sale,[26] and the house became a teacher training college, the Wentworth Castle College of Education, until 1978. It was then used by Northern College.[27] It was featured in the Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibition "The Country House in Danger". The great landscape that Walpole praised in 1780 was described in 1986 as now "disturbed and ruinous", the second earl's sinuous river excavated in the 1730s reduced to a series of silty ponds,.[28]
Wentworth Castle is the only Grade I Listed Gardens and Parkland in South Yorkshire. The Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust was formed in 2002 as a charity with the aim “To undertake a phased programme of restoration and development works which will provide benefit to the general public by providing extensive access to the parkland and gardens and the built heritage, conserving these important heritage assets for future generations”. Today, the landscape is gradually being restored by the Trust. The restoration of the Rotunda was completed in 2010, the parkland has been returned to deer park. The restoration of the Serpentine will form a future project as funding allows.
The estate opened fully to visitors in 2007, following the completion of the first phase of restoration, which cost £15.2m.[29] The Gardens at Wentworth Castle and Stainborough Park are open 7 days a week year round (closed Christmas Day and Boxing Day). Information for visitors, groups and schools and the latest information on restoration progress is available from the Trust's website. Tours of the house are available by arrangement.
Wentworth Castle was featured on the BBC TV show Restoration in 2003, when a bid was made to restore the Grade II* Listed Victorian conservatory to its former glory, though it[30] did not win in the viewers' response. Subsequently, the Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust took the decision in 2005 to support the fragile structure further with a scaffold in order to prevent its total collapse. The Trust succeeded in raising the £3.7 million needed to restore the conservatory in 2011 and work began in 2012, with grants from English Heritage, the Country Houses Foundation, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the European Regional Development Fund. The Trust completed the restoration of its fragile Victorian glasshouse in October 2013 – 10 years after its first TV appearance the Restoration series. It was opened by the Mayor of Barnsley on 7 November 2013 and opened to the general public the following day.