Wentworth Woodhouse is a Grade I listed country house in the village of Wentworth, in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England. It is currently owned by the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust. Considered to be the largest private residence in the United Kingdom , it has an east front of 606 feet ; the longest country house façade in Europe. The house has more than 300 rooms, although the precise number is unclear, with 250,000 square feet of floorspace . It covers an area of more than 2.5 acres , and is surrounded by a 180-acre park, and an estate of 15,000 acres . The original Jacobean house was rebuilt by Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Marquess of Rockingham , and vastly expanded by his son, the 2nd Marquess, who was twice Prime Minister, and who established Wentworth Woodhouse as a Whig centre of influence. In the 18th century, the house was inherited by the Earls Fitzwilliam who owned it until 1979, when it passed to the heirs of the 8th and 10th Earls, its value having appreciated from the large quantities of coal discovered on the estate.
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