Black Diamonds: The Downfall of an Aristocratic Dynasty and the Fifty Years That Changed England

In the 1970s for days on end piles of family papers were burned in bonfires at Wentworth house in Yorkshire taking with it most of the late 19th and early 20th century history of the earls Fitzwillam. This is the reconstructed story of the aristocratic Wentworth family from their glory days, flush with coal wealth at the end of the 19th century to their decline and fall in the 20th century. Wentworth house was one of the great treasure houses of the UK with the longest façade of any house in the country. It was stuffed to the rafters with all the treasures extraordinary wealth for 250 years could buy. However that wealth was bought on the backs of the miners who worked in the coal mines on their land. It comes as somewhat of a relief when you read this book to find the Earls weren't the demons to their employees that the corporations of the period were. In those days you considered yourself extremely fortunate to work in their mines. Yet despite this the revenge of the coal mining industry, when it came in the 20th century was devastating to Wentworth and when it's all said and done, it's a loss for us all if the description of the old house interiors and park are anything to go by - it could easily have been another Chatsworth House with better luck. This is a fascinating book in which family decisions made for love, money or greed are played out over generations. You get a good look at the old British coal mining industry, service in the great houses and high society and a good look at Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy (of THE American Kennedy's) who died with 8th Earl in a plane crash in 1948 and the occupation of the house in world war 2 which effectively bought an end to the house on a residential basis for the family. For a social history this book is hard to beat combining as it does a range of eccentric family members of the Wentworths and all the strange behaviour great wealth can bring.