Wentworth: May 2025
Please note that this article contains information for a past event.
Keep an eye out for future Wentworth events.
Wentworth Castle, South Yorkshire
16th—18th May 2026
This will be the fourteenth year that we have run the Wentworth Writing Weekend and some years, by popular demand, we have had two events.
Wentworth Castle is a Palladian stately home built in the C17th and early C18th and is now the home of Northern College near Barnsley in South Yorkshire. It was built on the slopes of a small wooded hill and the hilltop was crowned with a folly castle. On the hillside there are 60 acres of garden. Below the house is a large deer park where there are small herds of red and fallow deer. All around in the long vistas are woods and fields grazed by sheep and cattle. It is truly idyllic.
At the rear of the house is the old Home Farm, composed of a farmhouse, cottages and barns. These have been converted into a conference centre with en-suite accommodation clustered round the Arched Barn conference room. This is where we will be situated.
The cost this year is £250.
We arrive anytime from 2 pm on Friday afternoon, and, for our evening meal, at about 7 pm, we go to a Toby Carvery where we have a jolly meal for around £10. This is a good way to settle into each other's company.
After breakfast on Saturday there will be an optional tutored general writing workshop, suited to all genres. The afternoon is for socializing, walking in the lovely gardens (the rhododendrons and azaleas are spectacular) and the deer park, or for working on your writing project. We have access to the main house where there is a magnificent library with marble columns where we can use the computers in peace and quiet with views over the lawns, gardens and deer park.
In the evening there are talks, book launches etc. by the delegates, a quiz and a bit of a party. There are no bars at Wentworth so if you would like a drink then please bring some with you. The nearest shop is two or three miles away.
Sunday is for writing, socializing, walking or what for whatever you would like to do. We leave during the afternoon.
There will be around 12 to 15 delegates. Accommodation is in en-suite double or single rooms, whichever suits you. There is disabled accommodation also.
Junction 37 of the M1 is only a couple of miles away and if you come by train someone will pick you up at Barnsley station.
This is a reasonably priced tried and tested weekend for writers, in beautiful surroundings.