Compiled from various sources, as attributed, by Stuart Reddish and Lynda Mallett of The Public Information Research Organistation.

Local stories suggested in the past that the 5th Duke of Portland spent many years creating an underground labarinth of tunnels and rooms just to escape the public gaze.

These activities culminated in the building of the notorious 'ballroom' the largest one of its time. However it appears that to describe it as an Art Gallery would more correct and certainly should be prioritised over its description as a ‘ballroom’. This does not preclude the space from being used for dining or dancing but given the evidence the whole complex appears to have been designed to house the book collection and art collection from the ‘old’ riding school building. The complex, including reading and library rooms and the gallery space, thus becomes a controlled environment for the storage and display of the family collection of books and pictures.

The lack of direct sunlight and the attention to detail to prevent damp only confirms that the complex, far from being a folly, was in fact a highly engineered working space for its intended purpose.

The sunken garden appears to be an unfinished space originally intended to become a constructed addition to the first phase of the development.

We have collected together some accounts of the development of Welbeck at the time of the 5th Duke along with some photographs of the Gallery taken after its completion, which unfortunately was not in the lifetime of the Duke but perhaps some 20 years later in the 1890’s.

Welbeck Abbey
Nottinghamshire

The following is an account from L Jacks, The Great Houses of Nottinghamshire and the County Families, (1881) 

IN November, 1878, by favour of the late Duke of Portland, I was permitted to visit Welbeck Abbey, and the stupendous works connected with it, for there is no exaggeration in what has been written and rumoured concerning their magnitude. I reached the abbey at eleven o’clock one morning, after a drive of nine miles through a racy air, with just a touch of "winter’s sting." The long grass on either side of the undulating park-drive had a thin, crisp covering of hoar frost, which sparkled in the rich November sunlight, that gave a more golden hue to the dying foliage of oak and elm. I was somewhat disturbed at the outset by the intelligence that one could not see Welbeck thoroughly in less than three of these short days, knowing full well that my stay could not extend over more than one. A brief November day would scarcely afford time to see the works at Welbeck, if you wished to inspect the extensive outbuildings which are, as it were, the outcome of those works. Then there is the house itself, with its grand suites of rooms, rare pictures, and treasures of art from the master brushes of Snyders, Vandyck, Rembrandt, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and a host of other great painters. Welbeck is at once extraordinary and magnificent. A quarter of a mile away from the house there is the perpetual buzz of machinery, and a vast space of ground covered with sheds, in which the newest mechanical inventions are in constant use. The vastness of the work-yards astonishes one ; they might be the premises of some great contractor who had an order for the building of a big village.



Very soon after his succession to these immense estates and the titles that go with them, the fifth Duke of Portland commenced a series of improvements on a scale of unprecedented extent, and for upwards of eighteen years Welbeck was in the hands of the builders. During this time his grace devoted something like £100,000 per year of his princely income to the improvement of the Welbeck estate, and some 1,500 workpeople of all classes were constantly employed in carrying out his instructions. The numerous great and expensive works, which are to be seen at Welbeck, were under the immediate supervision of the noble duke himself, who really ought to be described as their architect. When a new building was to be erected he caused a model of it to be constructed, and a flaw or an aspect of inelegance, was detected by him at once. That he was a man of exalted taste in matters of architecture is abundantly manifest everywhere on his estate. The very lodges which dot the park, and which are occupied by keepers and others in his grace’s employ, are models of architectural beauty, and everywhere there are evidences of superb taste, and considerable engineering skill. In the late duke’s time, people applying for employment at Welbeck were able to obtain it—no matter what they were—and the full market value has been paid for their labour.



On the occasion of my visit to Welbeck, I had spent the morning out of doors about the " works," in the stables and outhouses, which are on a gigantic scale, and in other of the outworks, and there was only time for a very hasty inspection of the house. The Gothic hall of Welbeck is a gem of architecture, the existence of which is pretty well known. This is part of the old building, which was altered and restored by the Countess of Oxford,—another "Bess of Hardwick," in 1751. The ceiling is a marvel of beauty. It is of pendant fan tracery, delicately and elaborately designed, and the room is splendidly decorated in pure Gothic style in keeping with the ceiling, which I have but imperfectly described. The room contains at least half a dozen rare antique cabinets of ebony and bronze, and of inlaid marble. The large drawing room at Welbeck is a treasure-house. On its walls are hung large and valuable pictures in plenty. The Duke of Portland has one of the best private collections of pictures in England. The walls of the drawing room and of the dining room, which is the largest room in the house, were, and I dare say are now, literally covered with splendid paintings, some of them of great size, and all the works of the best known artists. In the last-named room there are Rembrandt’s famous portrait of himself, a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of one of the first Earls of Portland, who, when plain William Bentinck, came over on his first visit to England as page-of-honour to William, Prince of Orange, afterwards William the Third. On the accession of this King, William Bentinck was created Baron of Cirencester, Viscount Woodstock, and Earl of Portland, all of which titles are held by the present Duke. This splendid suite of rooms, which forms part of the old house, has recently been extended, and several, what may be, perhaps, not improperly described as ante-rooms, have been added. The new fireplaces are of nickel silver, beautifully white, and highly polished, the mantelpieces being of white marble. Here there are more pictures. There is one of the second Duke of Portland, of that distinguished patriot and statesman, Lord George Bentinck, painted when a boy, and that bright pretty girl, in the pale blue dress, with silver embroidery, is Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley, who, in 1734, married the second Duke of Portland. There is here a portrait of that very plucky woman, Jane Cavendish, who kept garrison for her father at Welbeck against the Parliament army. There are also in these rooms portraits of the two Charleses, that of Charles the First, showing what the monarch was like in his boyhood. At the north entrance to the house there stretches for some distance a lovely little conservatory, which, on this chill November day, is bright with flowers—chrysanthemums and primulas. In what is known as Lady Oxford’s wing at the south front, another story, with a magnificent suite of rooms, has been added to the house by the late Duke. The rooms are very expensively fitted. Most of the walls are of salmon colour, with chastely gilded mouldings, or panels, each panel large enough to contain a life-size portrait, and much of the furniture is in the Louis XVI. style. A finer suite of rooms than this could not be seen anywhere, with their tall mahogany doors, oak floors, elegantly guilded cornices, and mantel-pieces of pure white marble. If I remember rightly, the late Duke added fourteen new rooms to the Oxford wing, and all these are decorated and finished with the utmost purity of taste. Occasionally in this wing one comes upon some choice imitations of Gibbon’s carving, the work of an Edwinstowe artist. The carving of the marble mantelpieces, it should be stated, has been executed by workmen employed at Welbeck. In the sitting room of the late Duchess, which is in the old part of this wing, there is a fine chimneypiece of marble, inlaid with Wedgewood’s sage green plaques, In order that furniture and other heavy things may be conveniently moved, the mansion is supplied with hydraulic lifts, which are constructed to work from top to bottom of the house, and in this way furniture is removed from one story to another. There was an hydraulic shaft connected with the kitchens, and the dining room can be supplied by means of a small waggon, which, lowered by the shaft ran upon rails along one of the underground passages. These rails—which are something like the rails of a tramway, terminate at a kind of iron cupboard, which is heated by steam, and in this the viands can be placed, and kept hot until they are required for consumption in the adjoining room. An underground passage is connected with the old riding school, which is entered by a trap door, opened by means of a crank. Only the few who have seen this great room can form any conception of its proportions, or of its magnificence. In the Duke of Newcastle’s time it was used as a riding school—now it is put to a nobler use. It is used as a museum of art, containing long rows of choice paintings. There must have been several hundred pictures in this room—portraits and landscapes by famous artists long since passed away. You walked between avenues of pictures and of books, for there are several thousand volumes there, piled up in stacks upon the floor. The floor of this magnificent art gallery is of polished oak, and the inner portion of the roof, which is in the style of Westminster Hall, is painted to represent a glorious sky. The tall doors are wholly, and the walls partly, covered with looking-glass, which gives effect to what would make one of the finest banqueting halls in the kingdom. The glass alone in this room must have cost an almost fabulous sum. Four cut-glass chandeliers, each weighing nearly a ton, are suspended in a line from the roof ; from the hammer beams are twenty-eight smaller cut-glass chandeliers, and on the walls are fastened sixty-four cut-glass brackets or side lights. There are in all 2,000 gas lights in this grand apartment. What must be the effect when all these are lighted? The roof outside is covered with copper, and two turrets have been erected. In them are placed a set of clocks, which have been very fittingly described as marvels of constructive skill. Mr. Benson, of London, speaks of them thus "In a set of clock calendars which I some time since provided for his Grace the Duke of Portland, the clock showed the time on four dials, five feet nine inches in diameter, quarters, hours, &c. (the well-known Cambridge chimes), on bells of 12 cwt., repeating the hour after the first, second, and third quarters. The two sides of an adjoining tower show a calendar, which indicates on special circles of a large dial, by means of separate hands, the month of the year, the day of the month, and the day of the week." This building, like the others, which have been erected by the Duke of Portland, is connected with the house by underground passages. There are some miles of these passages at Welbeck. They lead in all directions, and are very pleasant to walk in. One of them, which leads from the house to the works, diverging to the riding school, was used only by the late Duke. There is a passage leading from the house half way to Worksop, and you can walk underground in that direction for fully twenty minutes ; there is another which takes one some distance into the park, and others leading to the library and cellars. These passages are constructed on a uniform principle, and they are wide enough to allow three people to walk abreast. They are lighted both by natural light and by gas. The light is admitted from above through circles of plate glass, which are placed in round frames. Appearing at intervals of about every ten yards amongst the grass of the park, these circular arrangements would puzzle any person who was not in the secret. In the passages gas is always burning. The tunnels are built of brick with a covering of hard plaster, and are perfectly free from damp. The floor is composed of some kind of pulverised stone, very pleasant to wall upon. Where the tunnel crosses a road, light is most ingeniously admitted from the side. The library at Welbeck, to which the finishing touches are now being given, is underground. It is a magnificent building, the work of long years. It is parallel with the picture gallery, and is divided into five large rooms, the ceilings of which are level with the surface of the park. The doors open one into another, so that the rooms can be made to form one great whole. The mahogany windows open into a long corridor covered with glass, and the whole building is effectively heated by steam pipes. Down below the earth’s surface there is not a sound to be heard in any one of the rooms, and a soft and subdued light is admitted through the large octagonal plate-glass arrangements in the ceiling. The library comprises reading rooms, and a room for periodicals. The cornices and ceilings are very handsome. The total length of the library is 236 feet, and there are ample facilities for lighting the rooms with gas, there being in all about 1,100 burners here. Closely adjoining the library is a subterranean apartment of magnificent proportions, into which the light of heaven is admitted by about forty large octagonal sunlights placed in rows in the vast ceiling. It was suggested that the Duke meant this for a church, but there is nothing ecclesiastical in its appearance. No, it is not a church. It looks more like the very antithesis of a church—a ball room, and what a ball room it would make! Its floor is of oak, and it massive roof supported by iron girders. At one end it is entered from above by means of a spiral staircase; at the other it is approached by subterranean passages. Its flat ceiling is beautifully ornamented, and the eight iron girders which support it are of massive proportions. The room has been, as it were, dug out of the solid clay; it was commenced five years ago, and to-day workmen are very busy within its spacious walls. This underground building, of which there is such a quantity at Welbeck, strange though it may seem to those who read about it, has certain special advantages. There is not the slightest suspicion of draught in these rooms, they are thoroughly heated by steam pipes, are perfectly free from damp, and the means of lighting employed is most successful.




The workshops at Welbeck are much too vast to admit of anything but a casual mention. There are great sheds, in which every kind of work is done by skilled workmen, aided by the very best machinery. In one room circular saws are whirring, and doing their speedy work; in another blacksmiths’ fires are burning, and men are striking sparks from large pieces of hot iron ; in another gigantic shed men are repairing carts and implements belonging to the estate; in another a huge slab of stone is succumbing to the fell movement of a frame-saw, whilst another piece is being smoothed by a "rubber," which is kept in perpetual motion by a small vertical engine. The waste steam from the boilers has been put to an excellent use ; by it the whole of the workshops and buildings connected with them are heated, the steam passing through iron pipes—an admirable arrangement. There are joiners’ shops, painters’ shops, and plumbers’ shops, which help to form a set of workshops, such as none but the largest contractors possess. In another part of these very extensive work yards are stacks of timber—giant slices of oak, sound and hard as adamant, and close by there are great boles of trees, which have been brought from the forest by one or other of the five monster traction engines that are housed in sheds by themselves. Other great sheds are filled with iron rods of all thicknesses, and iron piping of every dimension, for all manner of work is done in these shops. A new set of offices, the walls of stone, and the interior fitted in the very best style, with stone staircases, clerk’s rooms, private rooms, postman’s rooms, lavatories, and heated by piping, through which passes the "exhaust" steam from the adjoining works, have recently been completed, or nearly so, and opposite a new house for the house steward, with spacious and expensively-fitted rooms, in which pitch pine has been largely employed, has just been erected. Near to, and connected with the works, the late Duke caused to be built an immense fire-proof store, which is divided into three compartments, the roof of each compartment being of iron, and the inner sliding doors of the same metal, the floor being of asphalte. A great block of stabling, with stalls of iron and pitch pine, have here been built, and a new fire engine house, with special stabling accommodation, was, at the time alluded to, scarcely out of the builder’s hands. I ought to have stated that in the house, and about the works, are ample appliances for suppressing an outbreak of fire. In the midst of the workshops there is an engine shed, with a fire engine, capable of throwing a heavy stream of water some seventy feet high, with hose reels, salvage waggons, and all the necessary appliances. The gardens and pleasure grounds of Welbeck are so extensive that it would be impossible to see them thoroughly in a day. There are fifty acres of pleasure ground, composed of rare young shrubs, firs from Mexico and India, of grassy lawns, smooth and soft as velvet, intersected by a broad and continuous gravel walk, flagged in the centre. In one part of the pleasure grounds the late Duke caused to be made a large out-door skating rink, surrounded by graceful shrubs, which preserve their freshness through the cold weather. There is a large circular arrangement of iron near the foot of the lake,—a boathouse, and I am told that the top of this has been filled in with asphalte, so that it too could be used as a skating rink. The kitchen gardens cover an immense area of ground, and produce every kind of fruit and vegetable. They are surrounded by high walls, and are now being made more extensive. There are long lengths of standard rose trees, which, in the summer time, furnish lines of colour and fill the air with a delicious perfume there are vast ranges of glass, where delicious fruits are forced— nectarines and grapes, in unheard of quantities. The kitchen gardens are formed in separate compartments, and they extend as far as the Mansfield turnpike road, near to the Welbeck Gas Works. To hasten the ripening of the apricots, which occupy a wall one thousand feet in length, Rendle’s patent lean-to glass has been employed. This is a moveable arrangement, covering the whole length of the wall, and it is also used to protect the strawberry beds, on the opposite side of the path, which are exactly as long as the wall. At one end of the kitchen gardens a broad high wall of stone, with a carriage entrance, has just been built. The Duke made most lavish presents of game and fruit, and he supplied some of his friends with horses and ponies. The late Duke of Portland lived amongst his people, by whom he was held in the highest esteem, and it may be said that he spent the last twenty years of his life in doing good, inasmuch as he gave employment in prosperous times, and in times when the labour market has been in a most unhappy condition, to thousands of workpeople. The present Duke has enjoyed the title long enough to win the esteem of all classes. L Jacks, The Great Houses of Nottinghamshire and the County Families, (1881)

The underground Art Gallery built by the 5th Duke of Portland at Welbeck Abbey

!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } A:link { so-language: zxx } --> In an interview in the 'Worksop Guardian' of January 10th, 1930, Mr William Eyre of Creswell, who was born in the reign of William IV and who worked at Welbeck as a cabinetmaker for 63 years, remembered the 4th Duke.  He also remembered the estate as it was before the tunnels and riding schools were built.


The 5th Duke assumed the title in 1854 and much of the present day appearance of the estate is due to his designs.  His household in the censuses of 1861 and 1871 was rather different from that of his father.  The staff of 1861 at the Abbey included 21 year old Jane Gascoigne from Belph among the three housemaids, house steward, cook, under-butler, steward's room boy, three kitchen maids, still room maid, and a housekeeper.  By l871, the Duke was aged 70 and had a household containing two watchmen, among whom was Richard Lenthall, aged 43, born in Steetley, three kitchenmaids including Louisa Collingham aged 18 from Whitwell, a house steward, a confectioner, a baker, a footman, a page, an agricultural labourer, a gas and water fitter, a cook and six housemaids.  The inclusion of an agricultural labourer and a gas and water fitter among the Abbey residents does seem somewhat eccentric, a fact commented on in the Druce-Portland case in which an attempt was made to challenge the 6th Duke's right of succession.


Little new building had taken place in the 'Welbeck' section of the estate.  But in that part of the estate lying in Holbeck parish, Hunciecroft was already built by 1861.  A start may have been made on Stable Court since under the heading, 'Woodhouse Hall', entries (6 to 11) refer to 'New Stables' occupied by two stablemen, a groom, a builder's foreman with his family, and two carters including William Hazlehurst, aged 25, from Whitwell. In the same area are listed, a laundry, two houses at the Woodyard, where gardener William Tillery now lived, then four houses containing four gardeners and one brick maker with his family.  The Holbeck census also lists, 'New Works' and, 'Brickyard' and four houses in course of erection.


By 1871, addresses in 'Welbeck' apart from the Abbey were 'Lodge near New Works', occupied by watchman Lenthall, 'Millwood Lodge', occupied by the Harringtons, the head of the family being a valet and the two year old daughter Mary Ada having been born in Whitwell, and lastly 'Welbeck Gate' occupied by the Lowe family.  Father was a groom and 18 year old son William had been born in Whitwell.  Three houses were listed as unoccupied.  Besterman's book on the Druce-Portland case states that tunnelling operations commenced in 1864 and also that underground rooms, picture gallery and ballroom were not constructed until 1872.  However several lodges in Holbeck parish were by now occupied, including Oaksetts, Welbeck Dairy, Poultry Lodge, Milk Lodge, Welbeck Laundry, Laundry Lodge, Welbeck Garden House, Welbeck Gardeners' Room, Gas Works House, Hunting Stables, Welbeck Carriage House, and Woodyard House with six empty houses.


There is evidence that the Duke owned traction engines as early as 1860, probably for haulage.  A framed certificate produced by Worksop artist J. Baldock for the Worksop Labourers' Friendly Society was presented to Richard Flear of Carburton on 20 October 1860.  Among the illustrations of farming activities and local scenes surrounding the award is one of the Priory Church and one of a traction engine.  The Retford and Gainsborough Times reports in May 1874 that a young boy was killed, when he fell from a trailer-coupling under the wheels of one of the Duke's machines in Worksop.  In June of the same year, an engine travelling at top speed from Worksop to Welbeck sent forth a shower of sparks, thus setting fire to the dry roadside grass.  By the following year, doubts about the Duke's engines were being expressed.  'They are all very well on newly macadamised roads, they act something like steamrollers.  But after a thaw or in continued wet weather they ought to stay at home.  Coming five or six along our Worksop streets in a line, they quickly transform what little solid matter there is to the consistence of oatmeal gruel.' They were probably carting materials to or from the new railway station.  They were governed by strict regulations.  In May 1877, a Grantham man was fined £1 for driving a traction engine and cultivator on the highway between Carburton and Edwinstowe without having a boy in front with a red flag.  In November l880, Thomas Wells of Whitwell Common was charged as the owner of a traction engine, with allowing his locomotive during the hours between 8 o'clock in the afternoon and 4 o'clock in the forenoon to pass over any turnpike road or highway.  He was fined ten shillings.


Mr Eyre of Creswell recalled seeing the 5th Duke and speaking to him 'scores of times'.  'He used to talk to all the workmen.  He knew them all and they were very fond of him.  It would be difficult to find a better friend, the men knew that'.  Turberville states that the 5th Duke did not, as his father frequently did, come and see for himself but remained unseen in the background.  He says, 'it is quite clear that he was interested in every detail of business, and that he possessed practical aptitude similar to his father.  But he preferred to see things through the eyes of his agents except only at Welbeck where he was apparently most at ease.'


In the early 1870's, the Duke was much opposed to Forster's Education Bill, which sought to provide for elementary education, wherever such provision did not exist.  His aid was constantly invoked, to furnish funds to bring existing 'Church Schools' in the locality up to standard, so that the influence of the Church could be retained.  He was most interested in the Church schools at Cuckney, Clipstone, Kirkby, Bolsover, Creswell, Mansfield and Sutton-in-Ashfield as well as many others.  His greatest anxiety seems to have been reserved for the school at Whitwell.  It seems to have been the one most of all dependent upon his support, since even the most trifling necessities required by the households of the schoolmaster and schoolmistress were supplied from Welbeck.  While the inspector reported favourably on the efficiency of the school, it became clear that additional buildings would be required, even before the increase in population consequent upon the sinking of Whitwell pit, started in 1890.


The Duke could express himself quite forcibly in print, as evidenced in his letters to Sir Robert Anstruther in Fife, rebutting allegations that he had issued circulars to his tenants telling them how to vote in 1868, but he was rarely if ever heard to utter a word of anger.  He was kind and considerate though some of his kindnesses seem a little odd.  He supplied his employees with umbrellas (does one still linger in any Whitwell attic?) and with donkeys. (Bicycles only became popular in the late 1860's.) He built a roller skating rink and urged his employees to use it and the boats on the lake for exercise.


The Duke is best remembered for the immense works that he undertook.  It was stated in 1878, when the Duke was ill in London that the number of men employed at one time at Welbeck was estimated to have been between 1500 and 1600. £113,000 was paid to a single firm of iron and brass founders for a great variety of works but chiefly for water and gas installations.  Many temporary buildings were erected, mess rooms and workshops.  A number of navvies lived in the grounds and there was for a time a whole encampment of Irish labourers known locally as 'Sligo'.  On June 20, 1874, a fight was reported at the Greendale Oak, Cuckney between, 'a number of Irish and navvies employed at Welbeck.' The Irish were living in a 'large clubroom' at Norton in which some windows were broken in the fracas, the police having difficulty in quelling the disturbance and arresting the ringleaders.  In 1871, the census of Norton shows 24 out of 25 men living 'out of houses' to have been born in Ireland.  They slept in 'detached buildings or barns'.


Further indications of the number of workers and the effect on the locality can be gained from Retford Times reports.  On January 24th, 1874, it seems that the brick and tile makers in the employ of the Duke of Portland held their annual supper at the Rose and Crown, Creswell.  On 3rd February 1877, 126 masons and labourers, employed under Mr Collingham at the estate of the Duke, held their annual supper at Mr Collingham's house, the Boot and Shoe, Whitwell.  A week later we read that Mr Tom Palmer of the Jug and Glass at Whitwell provided supper for 120 of the men at Welbeck employed under Mr Tinker, who was Clerk of Works, a former Whitwell resident.


In early 1877, storms and floods hit Welbeck and the surrounding area.  The contractor's workshops of Messrs Hydes and Wigfull were in such a state that all operations ceased and many of the vans, in which the labourers lived, could not be reached without much wading.  Welbeck lake overflowed and filled some of the tunnels breast high with water rendering them also quite impassable, while the underground church at Welbeck was filled to a depth of three feet with water.  The same Retford Times reported three weeks later that, 'Everyone will be pleased to know that work is once more in a brisk state at Welbeck in one or two departments.'


A further report dated 25 September, 1875 reads, 'The people of Whitwell kept the Duke of Portland's 75th birthday in a capital manner on Tuesday last.  A sight worth seeing was the turnout of that prosperous village to celebrate the day; and although it was understood to be against the ideas of the Duke, still he could not fail to be gratified to know that so many of his work people and tenants were wishing him continued length of days, and doing it in a harmless sort of way.' The report goes on to describe the procession of the school children of the parish, 700 to 800, through the village, with banners and flags to a large tent hired for the occasion, where the children and widows were regaled with a supply of cake, bread and butter and tea after which the public were admitted.  Dancing followed until 11 p.m.  The canteens at each end of the tent were supplied by Mr W. Collingham of the Boot and Shoe and Mr Thomas Palmer of the Jug and Glass.


On the occasion of the Duke's 78th birthday, when he was ill in London, there were no demonstrations at Welbeck, except that the whole of the work people left their work somewhat earlier than usual ‘also for each person there was a liberal allowance of good old ale, in which the health of the nobleman was drunk right heartily...’


In October 1878, considerable agitation was reported in the press consequent upon 'the rapid reduction in numbers of the work people at Welbeck, large numbers of whom have either been dismissed or have received notices that their services will no longer be required.  On Saturday last about fifty men received notice to quit.  The reductions have so far mostly been amongst the masons, bricklayers and the labourers.  The men engaged upon the asphalt works have also for the most part been dismissed.' The report on 8th November was to the effect that the number employed was only a third of the previous number of about 1500 which, 'in these times of depression is very serious indeed. 250 navvies and labourers were discharged last Saturday and also a number of tradesmen -joiners, smiths, masons, bricklayers ... These, it is generally understood, will be followed by others and, in fact, reports say that everything is coming to an end at Welbeck.  The 'Estate men' will however continue their avocations at Welbeck.  At the moment, the Duke is making extensive improvements on his Scottish estates including the building of a massive sea wall.  The joinery required in other improvements upon the estates in Scotland is to be done at Welbeck.' Mr Sam Malthouse of Whitwell was an unemployed mason in the 1881 census, but he found work under the new Duke, being golf and cricket professional at Welbeck for 35 years.


In 1875 and 1878, the old Duke was often unwell.  In the summer of 1878, he went through the tunnels to Worksop and up to London for the last time and never again returned to Welbeck.  He died on 6th December 1879 and was buried simply as was his father, who had stipulated that no more than £1.00 was to be spent on his funeral.


The 6th Duke, in his book, Men, Women and Things, records the desolation of the scene, when he first succeeded to the title; his sister, Lady Ottoline Morrell, reinforced the comments in her biography.  By January 2nd, 1880, however, the Retford Times was able to record, 'It is pretty generally known that at the death of the late Duke, much of the work projected at Welbeck was in a very unfinished state and some portions only just begun.  Little has been done since the summer of 1878 and portions look like a wilderness when deserted, as they were, by batch after batch of workman, dismissed.  It is announced that the whole of the work is to be finished at once in accordance with the late Duke's wishes'.


Prosperity did return to Welbeck, and the 6th Duke continued the benefactions of his predecessors.  Until the time of the Pageant in 1939 many Whitwellians found their livelihood 'down at Welbeck'.  It was said in the 1930's that, 'it was like Piccadilly Circus at "knocking-off" time.' During the war, which followed, numbers naturally fell.  Many estate workers had joined the Sherwood Rangers and other regiments pre-war and of those who returned, not all went back to work at Welbeck.  Mrs Hollis from Belph spent four years nursing wounded men at the hospital, one of several nurses tending up to sixty patients there.  Winifred, Duchess of Portland, was the prime mover behind many charitable acts involving nursing and also the welfare of animals.  Mrs Hollis now lives in 'The Winnings' built by the Duke out of racing success at the instigation of the Duchess.  She was responsible for the building of Harlow Wood Orthopaedic Hospital and for many other charitable acts.