Yorkshire Sculpture park visit 2023

We visited Yorkshire Sculpture Park today, and what a joy it was.

I found out it’s nearing the birthday of the Sculpture Park, which opened in 1977, so it’s a joy to be celebrating its Birthday.

The estate has a long and fascinating history.⁠
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When Sir Thomas Wentworth, owner of Bretton Hall, died in 1792, the estate passed to his illegitimate daughter Diana Beaumont (c.1776–1831). Nobody quite knows how this came about. ⁠
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One possibility is her commitment to continue the landscape design that Sir Thomas seemed to care so passionately about.

It was even said of Diana that she was 'loathed by everyone except her gardener and possibly her husband’.⁠
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Diana did continue the improvements of the landscape she inherited. She employed Robert Marnock as a garden designer, who is acknowledged as being one of the outstanding horticulturalists of the 19th century.⁠
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Diana also introduced the Camellia House, which was one of a range of new features and follies that came to the Park while she was the owner.⁠
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The Bretton Estate has a long and varied history, from the home of the Wentworth family to the pioneering centre for education, Bretton Hall College, in the 1940s.

In 1977 lecturer Peter Murray came up with the idea of exhibiting sculpture in the landscape and opening it up to the public. And so, Yorkshire Sculpture Park was born!

Today there are some very interesting and reflective art pieces by Barbara Hepworth, Damian Hurst, and Henry Moore, to name a few.

I mean this with no disrespect, but I have to admit my favourite was immersing myself in nature and the wonder and magic of being with a beautiful soul.