A scenic village has been left stuck in time after banning residents from making any changes without permission. Locals in the rural village of Wentworth in Yorkshire must submit requests to the village trust to make any alterations. to their properties.
Tight rules meant to preserve the historical and architectural beauty of the village mean that everything down to the colour of their doors is strictly monitored. Takeaways, supermarkets and flashing neon signs are banned with residents only having access to local village shop and two pubs.
Tourists travel for miles around to visit Wentworth and the Woodhouse, the village's grand stately home. Yorkshire Live reports every door in the village is coloured with what locals call “Wentworth Green” which represents the historic livery of the area.
Matt Thompson, 43, said: "It’s forced to be [traditional] because of the rules the estate has to abide by, everything has to be uniform. Hence all the ‘Wentworth Green’. I see it everybody – but yes people come in and say ‘what a great village’.”
The local wine merchant has run Lightfoot Wines, on Main Street for seven years. He says that everything in the area is “kept in check" and “Time doesn’t really matter in the village. There’s no sense of urgency.”
Though he admits that he is happy to escape the intoxicating nature of the village when he returns to his wife and two children who all live outwith the village boundaries. Home to 1,400 residents, Wentworth is owned by the Fitzwilliam Wentworth Amenity Trust, a subsidiary of the Fitzwilliam Wentworth Estate which has owned most of the area for more than 300 years.
Acting as landlords, the estate is run by Sir Philip Naylor-Leyland Bt., grandson of the 10th Earl Fitzwilliam, and Lady Juliet Tadgell, daughter of the 8th Earl Fitzwilliam. The aristocratic family hold a staggering 95% of properties with the trust having near complete control over the village's architecture and operations and villagers merely serve as tenants, unable to claim ownership of their homes.
Matt continued: “There’s lots of people who have lived here their entire lives. They were born here and they’ll die here. There are some old draconian rules where you can pass the rent down to the next generation, and that will be like peppercorn rent – but the minute a bloodline dies out, the rent goes up.”
Craig and Zoe Horner, 53 and 54, have managed the village shop for almost 18 years, raising two children, now 17 and 20, in the village. They are now looking to move onto the next chapter in life and are keen to sell the business – though, not the building which is owned by the trust.
Craig said: “It’s a quaint quiet little village owned by a trust that likes to, as far is it can, keep things as it always has done. Certain things like the door colours, the lamps.”
“Once you introduce one thing then it snowballs, and before you know it, you’ve got neon signs, chip shops and all sorts – which they would never allow anything like that.”
Alexander Davies-Terry, the village’s new Head of Estate, disagrees with Craig’s notion. He has been praised as a “forward thinker” and is currently working on a secret plan for the village's future.
He said: “I meet with everyone who moves into a property in Wentworth. We sit, have a chat and I sort of explain the ownership and how the trust wants to preserve the historical aspects and architecture of Wentworth.
“We explain how we operate and what they can expect from us and how we have a building surveyor employed, and he has assistants or technicians, and they can go to them for repairs and also for bigger issues. Or if they want to make alterations, they can come to us and we’ll have a discussion about it.
“With the green doors, you drive through Wentworth and all the doors are green and that’s part of the heritage and signifies it as an estate property.
“It’s an estate village, we’re not unique in being an estate village. You can find villages that have all blue doors – an estate I used to work on had all marine doors. It’s an aesthetic choice, some people might not like the green, but I think a lot of people like the status of living in an estate house or living within Wentworth.”
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