History thumb|Portrait of the Marquess of Rockingham, c.1768 The English Baroque, brick-built, western range of Wentworth Woodhouse was begun in 1725 by Thomas Watson-Wentworth, (after 1728 Lord Malton) after he inherited it from his father in 1723.Baron Malton, as he then was; he was subsequently created Earl of Malton (1734) and Marquess of Rockingham (1746). It replaced the Jacobean structure that was once the home of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, whom Charles I sacrificed in 1641 to appease Parliament. The builder to whom Wentworth's grandson turned for a plan for the grand scheme that he intendedThe first block constructed already included a ground-floor gallery long (Charlesworth 1986:126). was a local builder and country architect, Ralph Tunnicliffe,Ralph Tunnicliffe (–1736) appears in several churchwardens' accounts for rebuilding and alterations to churches; just before his involvement at Wentworth Woodhouse, he had been making alterations at Wortley Hall, West Yorkshire, for Edward Wortley Montagu (Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840 3rd ed. [Yale University Press] 1995, s.v. "Tunnicliffe, Ralph"); Wortley Montagu was a prominent Whig politician who moved in the same circles as Lord Malton: an obelisk honouring his wife, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu stands in the rival Wentworth parkland, Wentworth Castle. who had a practice in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. Tunnicliffe was pleased enough with this culmination of his provincial practice to issue an engraving signed "R. Tunniclif, architectus"Colvin 1995, s.v "Tunnicliffe, Ralph". which must date before 1734, as it is dedicated to Baron Malton, Watson-Wentworth's earlier title. However the Baroque style was disliked by Whigs, and the new house was not admired. In , before the West Front was finished, Wentworth's grandson Thomas Watson-Wentworth commissioned Henry Flitcroft to build the East Front "extension", in fact a new and much larger house, facing the other way, southeastward. The model they settled on was Colen Campbell's Wanstead House, illustrated in Vitruvius Britannicus in 1715.
History thumb|Portrait of the Marquess of Rockingham, c.1768 The English Baroque, brick-built, western range of Wentworth Woodhouse was begun in 1725 by Thomas Watson-Wentworth, (after 1728 Lord Malton) after he inherited it from his father in 1723.Baron Malton, as he then was; he was subsequently created Earl of Malton (1734) and Marquess of Rockingham (1746) It replaced the Jacobean structure that was once the home of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, whom Charles I sacrificed in 1641 to appease Parliament. The builder to whom Wentworth's grandson turned for a plan for the grand scheme that he intendedThe first block constructed already included a ground-floor gallery long (Charlesworth 1986:126). was a local builder and country architect, Ralph Tunnicliffe,Ralph Tunnicliffe (–1736) appears in several churchwardens' accounts for rebuilding and alterations to churches; just before his involvement at Wentworth Woodhouse, he had been making alterations at Wortley Hall, West Yorkshire, for Edward Wortley Montagu (Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840 3rd ed. [Yale University Press] 1995, s.v. "Tunnicliffe, Ralph"); Wortley Montagu was a prominent Whig politician who moved in the same circles as Lord Malton: an obelisk honouring his wife, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu stands in the rival Wentworth parkland, Wentworth Castle. who had a practice in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. Tunnicliffe was pleased enough with this culmination of his provincial practice to issue an engraving signed "R. Tunniclif architectus"Colvin 1995, s.v "Tunnicliffe, Ralph". which must date before 1734, as it is dedicated to Baron Malton, Watson-Wentworth's earlier title. However the Baroque style was disliked by Whigs, and the new house was not admired. In , before the West Front was finished, Wentworth's grandson Thomas Watson-Wentworth commissioned Henry Flitcroft to build the East Front "extension", in fact a new and much larger house, facing the other way, southeastward. The model they settled on was Colen Campbell's Wanstead House, illustrated in Vitruvius Britannicus in 1715.