The estate was owned by the Dronsfield family from the 13th century before it passed by marriage to the Wentworths in 1407.

It was inherited by the Beaumonts in 1792 and remained in their family until 1948 when Wentworth Henry Canning Beaumont, 2nd Viscount Allendale, sold the property.

Part of the estate including the Hall was bought by the West Riding County Council. In 1977, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park was born while the Hall was used as a college. It is now being converted into a luxury hotel and spa.

It is said that the obelisk was erected on the site of the former Bretton Hall. The first documented house was built of timber for Sir Thomas Wentworth, Knight Marshall to King Henry VIII. It is said that he commissioned a carved oak bed in case the King ever stayed.

The second house had 37 rooms and was lived in by Sir Thomas Wentworth. He was a Cavalier who fought on the side of Charles I. He was knighted in 1660 at the Restoration and created a Baronet in 1664.

The estate was inherited by his 11 year old son, William, with his wife, Grace, holding a life tenancy. In 1679, she married Alexander Montgomerie, Earl of Eglinton. Near the entrance to the quarry is a stone hut built into the rock face. Inside the building is a well with the following words above the entrance: ‘This well was built by the right Honourable Grace Countess of Eglinton widow of Sir Thomas Wentworth’ with the date 1685.

In 1720, the timber-framed building was damaged by fire and Sir William built a new house with advice from his friend Colonel Moyser of Beverley.

In 1763, the estate passed to their son, Sir Thomas Wentworth. He inherited the extensive estates of his Blackett uncle in Yorkshire, Northumberland and Durham. [See Wallington]. He also changed his name under the conditions of the Will. An eccentric, Sir Thomas had two lakes dug out by hand, deep enough for his 35 foot boat, the Aurora. He held parties with firework displays and mock naval battles. The cascade bridge was built c1765.

The Boat House can be found at the head of the Upper Lake. The stone columns and mooring post are all that remain of the original building.

There was once a menagerie on one of the islands in Upper Lake.

Thomas never married and on his death in 1792, the estate was inherited by his illegitimate daughter, Diana. She was married to Colonel Thomas Richard Beaumont and together they extended the house appointing Jeffry Wyatt as architect. Wyatt also designed the aviary. They also built several glasshouses and conservatories and developed the gardens with a stone grotto and a neo-classical temple overlooking the lake.

It is said that Diana was loathed by everyone except her head gardener, Robert Marnock, and possibly her husband. But even Marnock can’t have been that happy because he entered and won a competition for the design of the Botanic Gardens at Sheffield and left Bretton in 1834.

Whatever Diana’s character, she was a skilled and knowledgeable horticulturist. She was sent plants from Calcutta Botanic Garden by Nathaniel Wallich including a small woody climber commonly known as the Easter lily vine. And Wallich named the genus after her – an illustration of Beaumontia grandiflora appeared in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine in 1833. She also had a magnificent conservatory which was sadly dismantled and sold after her death in 1831.

Her son, Thomas Wentworth Beaumont inherited her interests in urban property, agriculture, coal and lead mining and various other interests both at home and abroad. He was known as the richest commoner in England. As MP in Northumberland, he rarely visited Bretton until his retirement in 1837 when he sold off most of the contents of the house and gardens. Some say it was because he didn’t want to be reminded of his mother. His son Wentworth Blackett Beaumont also looked after the estates in Yorkshire, Northumberland and Durham but after the death of his first wife, he spent more time in London. He was made Baron Allendale of Allendale and Hexham in 1906. He died in 1907 and was succeeded by his son. The 2nd Viscount Allendale moved his family to Bywell Hall in Northumberland and sold what was left of the Bretton estate for £30,000.