WORTLEY HALL has two histories, the first concerning the family who built and lived in the hall and the second when it became “the Workers’ Stately Home.”

Wortley Hall was the ancestral home of the Earls of Wharncliffe – the lords of the manor of Wortley. The earliest recording being Alnus de Wortley, mentioned in the Pipe Rolls for 1165. During the English civil war of 1642-51, Sir Francis Wortley commanded a loyalist garrison based at Wortley Hall.  

Wortley Hall fell into decay until the mid-18th century, when Edward Wortley commissioned the rebuilding of the hall. In 1800, James Archibald Stuart Wortley and his wife Caroline Creighton should have taken up residence, but were unable to do so because for some reason the architect had omitted to include a staircase.  

During the 1939-45 war period, parts of the hall were occupied by US and British armies and after 1945 the hall once again fell into a state of disrepair and the family moved out.

In 1949 Wortley Hall was on the market, Vin Williams, a lecturer with the National Council of Labour Colleges, later to become the Workers Education Association (WEA), immediately began making enquiries because for a number of years he had the belief that the working class should own such a building for use as an education and holiday centre.  

Vin approached the Sheffield district committee of the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) and convinced the committee to get involved, and as a result a provisional committee was formed.  

Following negotiations with the Wharncliffe Estates, an agreement was reached which became effective from September 1950, with a rent of £50 for the first year and £500 a year thereafter, with a lease for a period of 14 years.

In June 1950 a national appeal was launched to raise the necessary money to convert Wortley Hall into an educational holiday centre.  

Ten thousand circulars were sent out to trade union branches and district committees, co-operative guilds, ward and constituency labour parties, shop stewards committees and so on, inviting the organisations to take out one shilling shares, to make donations or to sell tickets for a draw on the 1950 St Leger.  

The response was quite amazing — a profit of £1,300 was made on the St Leger draw and applications for one-shilling shares poured in from individuals and organisations of all types, from all parts of the country.  

With this fine response, Vin Williams and the provisional committee knew there was widespread interest in what they were doing, and this gave them inspiration to carry on. The next step was to start the job of converting Wortley Hall into an educational holiday centre.  

This was no easy task. It had not been occupied for three to four years, had been terribly neglected and was in a semi-derelict condition. The task of conversion was formidable. Building surveyors brought in to advise on the cost of conversion estimated that between £40,000 and £50,000 would have to be spent to do the necessary works.

This sort of expense was beyond the wildest dreams of the provisional committee, the only way to do the job was to buy the necessary materials and get volunteers to come and do the work.

Undaunted the committee appealed in local workplaces and the response was terrific. Engineering workers, miners, railway men, foundry men, builders, labourers, housewives, people from all walks of life, trades and professions volunteered their services due to a belief in the ideals of creating a “home for the labour movement.” From September 1950 to May 5 1951 when the hall was officially opened as Labour’s Educational Recreational Holiday Homes Limited (the use of Wortley Hall was prohibited by Wharncliffe estates, the owners of the property), the hall was a hive of activity as the workers poured in their skills and enthusiasm in cleaning, renovating and converting Wortley Hall.
 
Opened by Frank Soskice QC MP, Member of Parliament for Sheffield Neepsend and later to become Lord Stow Hill, Hickleton Main Colliery Brass band and Scunthorpe Ladies Choir provided the entertainment.

Approximately 3,000 people turned up to the opening celebration to give the venture their best wishes. To get some measure of the amount of voluntary labour given to the venture, the full capital outlay in converting, furnishing and fitting out the hall was £10,000 and not the £40-50,000 estimated by the professional advisers.  

In 1954 the organisation was asked if it was interested in purchasing the property. Negotiations took place and it was finally agreed that the hall, together with six cottages and approximately 28 acres of land, would exchange hands for £10,000.  

On October 28 1959, Labour’s Educational Recreational Holiday Homes Ltd was established. 

Several trade unions adopted rooms — the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) did so, and one lecture room was named after Henry Collins, an Oxford University lecturer in economics who lectured to the Foundry Workers Union. The lecture room has since been renamed the Unison Room.

More recently we have had rooms named for the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef), the Stewart Charnley Room, Sylvia Pankhurst Library, the National Assembly of Women (NAW) Room and the Unite Ballroom.

The bedroom wings were named after labour movement figures including Keir Hardy, Robert Owen, Tom Mann, George Lansbury, Abe Moffat, Vin Williams, Harry Johnson and the first secretary of Wortley Hall, Alf Hague. He his wife Marion and son Richard all worked at the hall for many years and the bedroom wing was named after them in respect of the god work done for Wortley Hall for many years.

Wortley Hall is a grade two listed building.

Wortley Hall is owned by its shareholders. Each shareholder – organisation or individual — has one vote at the general meetings, irrespective of the number of shares they may hold.