VIRTUAL: Prague Heritages

Abstract

Wentworth Woodhouse is a recently opened country house tourist attraction situated in an area with regeneration needs (Rotherham, South Yorkshire), struggling to find its role in the contemporary world primarily due to its enormous size and lack of contents. Although aristocrats, the family significantly increased their wealth via coal industrialisation, contributing to local economic flourishment, as well as in a paternalistic relationship with their workers from local villages. Therefore, Wentworth Woodhouse can be seen as a space of dual heritage: that of (traditional ) country house heritage, and that of working class, industrial heritage. Given the current climate of post-covid socioeconomic crisis, it is important to investigate whether country houses, and in particular Wentworth Woodhouse, are playing an important role within their local communities, and therefore, worth to be invested on and preserved for the future. It is useful to look at this case study as an attempt to bridge the gap between Wentworth Woodhouse and its communities, re-imaging their relationship. Given the fact that Wentworth Woodhouse is surrounded by many post-industrial coal mining communities, it is of interest to investigate the ways the Trust is attempting/will be attempting to connect with them, as ‘the demographic of the region is not the traditional audience for large country houses’. Elizabeth Crooke highlighted on the importance of community heritage, manifesting it as ‘means for social and economic development, local regeneration and political change’. By the same token, Bella Dicks juxtaposed the governmental attempts to combat social deprivation and regeneration, through active citizenship and community activation, ‘as two elements of the same state project to deploy participation as a tool’. Evangelos Kyriakidis underlined the dual role of community engagement within heritage, that of ‘informing research and of maximising its impact by ensuring that the local community