A tiny UK village home to 1,400 people has followed a particular set of rules over the past 300 years to protect its heritage - such as every single front door being painted green.
Wentworth, located in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, forces every resident to conform to the rules and regulations set out by the village trust.
From the Georgian architecture, the wooden beamed cottages, even the colours of the doors, window frames and drainpipes must remain the same, reports Yorkshire Live.
Every home presents a picture-perfect façade, with neat lawns and perfectly trimmed trees. Every single door is coloured “Wentworth Green" while every window frame is painted off-white.
“It’s forced to be [traditional] because of the rules the estate has to abide by, everything has to be uniform,” said local wine merchant Matt Thompson.
“Hence all the ‘Wentworth Green’. I see it everybody – but yes people come in and say ‘what a great village’.”
The Fitzwilliam Wentworth Amenity Trust, a subsidiary of the Fitzwilliam Wentworth Estate, act as the owner of the village and essentially maintain the village itself, the historic parkland and key buildings. The trust's principal objective is to "conserve these assets and preserve and improve the rural and visual character and amenities of the parish".
With a staggering 95 per cent ownership of the properties, the trust exercises complete control over the village's architecture and operations. The villagers merely serve as tenants, unable to claim ownership of their homes.
Matt said: “There’s lots of people who have lived here their entire lives. They were born here and they’ll die here. There are some old draconian rules where you can pass the rent down to the next generation, and that will be like peppercorn rent – but the minute a bloodline dies out, the rent goes up.”
When a new resident moves to the village, they are sat down and told that if they want to make any alterations to the property they need to make a request to the village trust.
In the village there are no takeaways, supermarkets or flashing neon signs. A village shop, two pubs and a restaurant is all that is on offer.
Wentworth Woodhouse, the village's grand stately home, or Wentworth Garden Centre are often popular with visitors.
Craig and Zoe Horner have owned Wentworth Village Shop for almost 18 years and are fond of the village's unique rules.
“It’s a quaint quiet little village owned by a trust that likes to, as far is it can, keep things as it always has done. Certain things like the door colours, the lamps," Craig said.
Zoe added: “They stick to the old traditions of village fetes and things like that. It’s very much an old traditional village. There are new people coming in who have got a lot of new ideas, but they still keep the village traditions.”
Alexander Davies-Terry, the village’s new Head of Estate, has been described as a "forward thinker" and is currently working on a “new vision” and plan for Wentworth’s future.
Giving an insight into how he welcomes new residents, Alexander said: “I meet with everyone who moves into a property in Wentworth. We sit, have a chat and I sort of explain the ownership and how the trust wants to preserve the historical aspects and architecture of Wentworth.
“We explain how we operate and what they can expect from us and how we have a building surveyor employed, and he has assistants or technicians, and they can go to them for repairs and also for bigger issues. Or if they want to make alterations, they can come to us and we’ll have a discussion about it.”
Asked about the green doors, Alexander insists he has not come across anybody who has had a problem with the colour.
He said: “With the green doors, you drive through Wentworth and all the doors are green and that’s part of the heritage and signifies it as an estate property.
“It’s an estate village, we’re not unique in being an estate village. You can find villages that have all blue doors – an estate I used to work on had all marine doors. It’s an aesthetic choice, some people might not like the green, but I think a lot of people like the status of living in an estate house or living within Wentworth.”
