Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, for £6000, the equivalent of nearly £1,200,000 today. Francis was the brother of Richard Woodroffe, who married Elizabeth Percy, the daughter of the infamous Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland, one of the two ring leaders of the Rising of the North. The present building in Woolley is an example of early Jacobean architecture, and was begun about 1635 and added onto at the turn of the 19th century by the architect Jeffry Wyatville. It stands in the village of Woolley near the M1 Motorway. Godfrey Wentworth was High Sheriff of Yorkshire for 1862–63. After serving the Wentworth family into the 20th century, the hall was a college for a period. It is now owned by Wakefield Council, who use it as a conference centre and wedding location. Architecture Michael Wentworth began rebuilding Woolley Hall in 1635. The new Woolley Hall consisted of an 'H'-shaped building of moderate size. An east wing was added to the south front around 1680. The western wing was added during the mid eighteenth century. The eastern wings which form the rest of the present building were added in the early nineteenth century. The house is constructed of hammer-dressed sandstone, with a slate roof. There are four storeys including the attic and basement. The main entrance is located at the south side of the house. There is an open porch, built in 1800. Over the steps to the main entrance, a balustraded balcony is supported by two pillars. A semicircular balustrade runs from the bottom of the steps to the edge of the south walls of the west and east wings. This balustrade matches that on the porch balcony. The western wing was built in the mid-eighteenth century. There is a single gable, matching those of the south front. At either side is an embattled parapet. The crest of the Wentworth family can be seen on the gable. The north front of the house has a central three storey canted bay, with tall arched sash windows to the ground floor and rectangular sashes above, and an embattled parapet at the edge of the roof. At the east side are service ranges added around 1800, around a yard open at the north-east side. The seventeenth-century extension to the south-west of the yard is gabled and has original seventeenth-century windows, as does the part of the 1635 building that is still