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Around Town Meets...
Lady Barbara Ricardo & Lady Ann Bowlby
By Frank A Wilson
 It will come of no surprise to those who know something of Wortley and its history that one of our smaller South Yorkshire villages is the home to no less than three ladies who have the title of Lady before their names.
Lady Barbara Ricardo is the resident of longest standing who came back to her home village many years ago after leaving East Africa to return to England with her sons. Her elder sister Lady Ann Bowlby has become a Wortley village resident again relatively recently and their niece Lady Rowena Stuart Wortley, the daughter of the late Earl and Countess of Wharncliffe made her home in the splendid former Vicarage close to the old family seat of Wortley Hall following the death of her mother the Dowager Countess Aline.
Wortley Hall, for a half a century no longer owned by the Wharncliffe family and not occupied by them since the end of the Second World War, was the family home of Lady Barbara and Lady Ann as children. We met in Barbara’s cottage in the heart of the village to talk of past times. Lady Ann had used her trusty mobility vehicle to perambulate along from her home in what was once the village school. In the kind of a curious about-turn in which Wortley specialises, she now lives in an apartment in a building that as the village school was endowed by the Wharncliffes but which as originally a Church of England school, was at its closure, sold by the Church Commissioners to the Wharncliffe Estate Company. The old school is now three apartments and in another nice twist, one of Lady Ann’s neighbours there is a lady who spent some of her early working years in the service of the family at Wortley Hall.
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Ann and Barbara were both born in London in a house rented by the family at a time when their father Archibald Ralph was still in the Household Cavalry. The family also had a house in Sandwich which Ann recalls her father very much liked as he particularly enjoyed the golf nearby. When the children were still very young their father succeeded to the title on the death of Francis John, the second Earl of Wharncliffe and thereafter the three Wharncliffe girls (Ann, Diana and Barbara) lived much of their young lives at Wortley Hall. A further sister Rosemary (Mary) was born in 1930 and in turn Alan Carlton, the long awaited son and heir in 1935. Ann can just remember her grandfather and, in particular the dramatic change in their lives when they moved permanently to Wortley Hall.
Settling down with coffee and Lady Barbara’s biscuit tin, I asked about early Wortley memories – conscious of the fact that in the days of their childhood, direct mixing with village folk other than the estate staff and those who worked at the Hall, was very limited. The family attended church – exiting the Hall grounds through a special door into Liberty Lane and entering the church through the separate Wharncliffe door – but not the village school. They were looked after as young children by a succession of nannies and maids and in the case of Ann and Barbara by a governess. Neither attended school – having all their education at home, and as Barbara now puts it “although it was not unusual for families like ours at the time, we were not really educated at all you see”.
They seem to have mixed feelings about their governesses of which there was a succession over the years and have fonder memories of the nannies and nursery maids. Barbara remembers one governess remarking at a crucial stage in their upbringing “thank God –I’ve taught you how to teach yourself”. Memories of sliding down the main staircase in the Hall on tin trays are much more vivid and the same applies to learning how to ride – “We all had ponies” with Barbara starting on a small Shetland that was a special favourite. Such was the extent of the grounds and the parkland that almost surrounded the Hall that as Ann remarks “we all adored it and went anywhere we liked”. Once they were competent riders there was the local Rockwood and Badsworth hunts to attend and although neither became very accomplished shots they were expected to join their father’s shooting parties for outdoor luncheons as the local beaters took a well-earned rest on the estate close to home or on Wharncliffe Chase. They both remember the herds of deer on the Chase and the dramatic beauty of Wharncliffe Crags captivated them as it was to captivate many children of future generations. Closer to home they remember the extensive gardens of the Hall and especially the walled kitchen gardens. The family and staff were to a great extent self-sufficient in vegetables and fruit and Ann and Barbara have special memories of grapes and peaches from the heated glass-house as well as of the abundance of soft fruit in season.
As for golf, Ann and Barbara confess to not applying themselves as much as their father might have wished. Barbara summed it up by saying that “I quite liked the game but I wasn’t much good at it you know”.
The ten or so years from 1925 through to the mid 30’s were idyllic times for privileged young ladies. Ann and Barbara have memories of long summer days visiting aunts and uncles at Wentworth (where splendid Sunday lunches are especially remembered) going up to London and with special affection their visits to Ireland to their maternal grandfather’s favourite retreat at Coollattin in County Wicklow. It was from Coollattin House - which must have been like fairy-land to the young Wharncliffe girls – that the Wentworth/Fitzwilliams managed their Irish estates, which at its peak extended to 88,000 acres. Extensive as the Wharncliffe Estate was this was a glimpse of something even grander, although the Wentworth/Fitzwilliams significant involvement in the early colonisation and governance of Ireland would hardly be important to three highly spirited young girls.
The responsibilities of the governess ended with the preparation for “coming out” and presentation at court. Ann, Diana and Barbara in turn attended the seasonal round of parties, dinners and dances in London; entertaining and in turn being entertained by other families of note. Ann remembers she had a ball arranged for her by the family and Barbara had a grand dinner party. Sitting in Barbara’s warm kitchen they reminisce about clothes, music and half-remembered acquaintances and it is hard to believe it all happened sixty five or more years ago before the Second World War “turned everything upside down”.
Barbara “came out” shortly after her sister in 1939 and was presented to King George and Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace. In her case the round of house parties and dances achieved perhaps its prime purpose as in this way she met her husband to be David Ricardo, a dashing member of the Eighth Hussars. Like Ann she was married at a relatively young age and moved away from Wortley for many years. Their last significant Wortley memory of those days, is of their weddings in the village church of St Leonards and the grand receptions that followed them.
Ann joined the services as a driver in the Mechanised Transport Corps and had a diverse, occasionally dangerous but “always interesting time” in London, Belgium, France, Denmark and one memorable month in Russia. Barbara joined the Women’s Land Army for a time – perhaps passing on some of the knowledge gained from Jack Goldring the Head Gardener at Wortley Hall when the girls were encouraged to have their own small garden. Her further involvement in the war effort was at Melton Mowbray where her riding skills and familiarity with horses was put into good use in assisting with the training of ponies and packhorses.
After the war with marriage and travel and family duties, the pleasures of childhood and adolescence quickly gave way to new responsibilities. Wortley Hall was never the same again of course but both agreed that the village had retained much of the character and charm they remembered as children. Thankfully, they continue to enjoy it.
Published Spring 2006. All information correct at time of print
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