Follow the brown signs

An old estate church rooted in village history

This atmospheric, partly ruined building started life as a church in the 15th century but was converted to a mausoleum in 1877 after a new church was commissioned. Today, only the chancel and north chapel remain intact.

In the chancel, brass and stone memorials and alabaster effigies from the 16th and 17th centuries trace the powerful Wentworth family, These include one to the Earl of Strafford, a supporter of the Crown who was beheaded on Tower Hill just before the Civil War, and Charles Watson-Wentworth, the 2nd Marquis of Rockingham, who helped to negotiate an end to the American War of Independence.

Wentworth estate workers and villagers rest in the churchyard, including the 17-year-old Chow Kwang Tseay from China, baptised John Dennis Blonde. He was thought to have been rescued from ‘HMS Blonde’ and brought to Rotherham in 1847 as a 14-year-old.

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