Latest news with #SarahMcLeod
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Barnsley museum in England's top 15 free attractions list
A council-run museum has been named in the top 15 most popular free visitor attractions in England, according to new Hall Museum in Barnsley is also the most-visited attraction in Yorkshire that does not charge for entry, Visit England total, Barnsley Museums sites received more than two million visitors in 2024, and 36.3m tourists came to South Yorkshire - a year-on-year increase of 5%, based on data from the Local Visitor Economy region's mayor, Oliver Coppard, said: "South Yorkshire is home to an incredible array of culture, creativity and character." Cannon Hall was acquired by the council from the Spencer-Stanhope family in the 1950s and opened as a museum. It has a Georgian walled garden, glasshouses and Victorian pleasure data estimated that tourists brought in £3.7bn for the region's Wildlife Park in Doncaster was the most popular paid-for attraction in 2024, with more than 894,000 people buying on the data, Sarah McLeod, chair of the South Yorkshire Local Visitor Economy Partnership, said: "By working collaboratively, we can drive sustainable growth, ensuring that - now more than ever - we encourage visitors to stay longer and spend more with our local businesses." The South Yorkshire Local Visitor Economy Partnership consists of Rotherham, Barnsley, Doncaster and Sheffield councils, the South Yorkshire mayoral office, and representatives from the private added: "Our heritage and culture doesn't just enrich our lives and shape who we are - it drives our economy too. With a £3.7bn boost and more than 32,000 jobs supported, the impact of arts, culture, and tourism is clear. When we invest in our people, our places and our stories, we create growth and opportunity, and we build hope." Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
Times
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Keeping Wentworth Woodhouse afloat: ‘It's £3.5m a year just to be here'
For the princely sum of £50 you can have your initials engraved on a link of the steel baluster chain that will stretch around the Palladian East Front of Wentworth Woodhouse, the 18th-century stately home that was saved for the nation eight years ago. This personalised chain is just one of the inventive ideas Sarah McLeod, chief executive of the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, her staff and volunteers have come up with to meet the estimated £150 million required to restore and maintain the grade I listed house and its 87 acres of grounds just north of Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Then there's film location hire. The sumptuous Marble Saloon has appeared in such films as Downton Abbey, Mr Turner and Darkest Hour. It also welcomes school proms, and in October will host a grand, £160-a-ticket Black Diamonds Ball (named after the 2007 Catherine Bailey book chronicling the fall of the owners, the Fitzwilliams) to support the Dame Julie Kenny Legacy Fund. Set up in honour of the chairwoman of the board of trustees, who died in February, the fund has already topped £100,000. • The fight to save Britain's estates — and Europe's coldest house Meanwhile, this week (July 16-20) the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) arrives at Wentworth on its peripatetic quest to make its flower shows accessible to wider audiences. Next year it's the turn of Sandringham, the Norfolk home of the King and Queen. Income, McLeod explains, will be derived from 'a dry hire rental of the site and secondary spend in the Camellia House [a grade II* Regency glasshouse, restored at a cost of £5 million last summer] and on afternoon teas. The biggest benefit to us is the exposure it brings in terms of new visitors to the site.' — Visitor numbers stand at 120,000 annually and are climbing by about 20 per cent a year. RHS Wentworth Woodhouse tickets, costing about £30 each depending on day/RHS membership, include access to the house and gardens; entry to both normally costs £15.50 for adults (discounted for National Trust members), with children up to the age of 16 going free. 'I'm absolutely committed to not charging children to come into the house,' McLeod says. 'I want them to be able to access culture free of charge.' So far, £30 million has been spent on capital projects, including emergency repairs and a new roof, but the site is still in the early stages of its regeneration journey, says McLeod, who has been in charge since 2017. Wentworth Woodhouse's mission right now is 'Putting our house in order', turning attention to profitable visitor-friendly internal works, such as improving the café, costing about £350,000, better disabled access and a lift (£1.5 million for both), and an education centre, including roof works (£2 million). There are also plans to build a pay-to-enter £500,000 adventure playground to 'cater to the family market', McLeod says. • Brideshead revisited: first pictures inside new-look Castle Howard Owned by generations of the aristocratic Rockingham and Fitzwilliam families, and requisitioned during the Second World War for training the Intelligence Corps, Wentworth Woodhouse's fortunes have ebbed and flowed. After the war, it became home to Lady Mabel College, training female PE teachers until the late 1970s, when it merged with Sheffield City Polytechnic. In 1989, after the polytechnic moved out, the Fitzwilliams decided to sell. A tumultuous few decades followed. In 1998, under the ownership of the entrepreneur Wensley Grosvenor Haydon-Baillie, the estate was repossessed by a Swiss bank, when his business fell into difficulty. • Read more expert advice on property, interiors and home improvement Then it was bought by Clifford Newbold, a distinguished retired architect from north London, who paid a reported £1.5 million for his dream project in 1999. Newbold started restoration and public tours, but he died in 2015. After a deal with a Hong Kong-based investment group fell through, Newbold's family sold in March 2017 to the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, which with the support of Save Britain's Heritage, raised the £7 million purchase price. And still the relentless drumming up of income goes on. 'My biggest concern is how can I make us more financially sustainable, because it costs us £3.5 million a year just to be here,' McLeod says. 'I've got a lot of staff, a lot of customers, a lot of cleaning, a lot of maintenance. All that kind of stuff gets more and more expensive every year as we get bigger and bigger.'
BBC News
15-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Wentworth Woodhouse celebrates European heritage award
A restoration project at a historic country house in Rotherham has won a European heritage Preservation Trust at Wentworth Woodhouse has transformed the Grade II* listed Camellia House which is home to some of the oldest surviving camellia plants in the Western project had previously won a national accolade in the Georgian Group's 2024 Architectural the Camellia House has been selected as one of the 30 outstanding winners of the European Heritage Awards Europa Nostra Awards which identify and promote best practice in the conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage. The Camellia House underwent a £5m restoration funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic England and other building had stood as a roofless ruin on the Heritage At Risk register, but has become a public tearoom and heritage was the only project in the UK and one of only three winners outside of the EU Creative Europe Programme, which co-funds the awards jury, made up of 11 heritage experts from across Europe, said: "The revival of a rare camellia collection and the integration of energy-efficient features demonstrate a balanced approach to horticultural, architectural and environmental heritage."The winners will be celebrated at the European Heritage Awards Ceremony 2025 on October 13 during the European Cultural Heritage Summit in Brussels. Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust chief executive Sarah McLeod said: "We are bursting with pride to be heading to Brussels to receive this highly respected European heritage award."An exceptional conservation team collaborated to take our Camellia House from a roofless wreck in danger of collapsing, back to its original grace and beauty - and vastly improved its sustainability and green credentials."Dorian Proudfoot, chief executive of Donald Insall Associates, the architects behind the renovation, said: "It is incredibly rewarding to see our client's vision to create an inclusive, world-class destination being recognised in Europe's most prestigious heritage award." Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
Daily Mail
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Superjesus singer Sarah McLeod says the Australian music industry is still very much a 'blokes game'
Rocker Sarah McLeod has revealed that, when it comes to sexism in the Australian music industry, little has changed in decades. As frontwoman for The Superjesus, McLeod has enjoyed a 30 year career that has spawned four studio albums and three ARIA Awards. Speaking to he Daily Telegraph, McLeod, 52, who is also chair of advocacy group Women In Music, said that there had been little done to redress gender imbalances within the industry. 'Things have changed marginally but since I took on this role and I'm looking at the statistics, I see total imbalance everywhere,' she said. She said that statistics have shown that when it comes to festivals, female representation clocks in at around 'five percent or ten percent.' From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. The Superjesus were certainly no strangers to the Aussie festival circuit, being regular fixtures on the liked of Livid, Homebake, and the Big Day Out. She admitted that while once thinking the band missed out on festival slots due to lack of talent, she has since changed her tune. 'I used to think we didn't get chosen for festivals, or another female-fronted band didn't get picked, because we weren't good enough,' she told the publication. 'But over the years I've realised that it is still very much a blokes' game, and we play it the best we can.' It was a similar sentiment that McLeod expressed when talking to The Music in 2023. 'It still is very much a male-dominated world, and I don't think it's changed as much as it should have, but at least we're aware of it now,' she said. 'The discussions are open, but it's still very much a male-dominated world.' She added that in the early days of The Superjesus she felt like just one of the guys, until choosing to embrace her femininity on stage. 'I used to think we didn't get chosen for festivals, or another female-fronted band didn't get picked, because we weren't good enough, But over the years, I've realised that it is still very much a blokes' game, and we play it the best we can,' she added. Pictured: The Superjesus in 2001 'I was very much a scrappy little tomboy for the first ten years of my career. And I just became one of the fellas, and I was cool with that, she said. 'But it wasn't until a good decade in, where I was like, "Wait a minute, I'm going to stretch my femininity here and embrace my power. 'I don't need to be one of you guys. I've got something else I could be, something better".' Sarah caused a stir, back in 2014, after she hit out at a touring festival, from which The Superjesus were dropped, for being too male-centric. In a post to Facebook at the time, McLeod claimed that The Superjesus and the Baby Animals, fronted by Suze DeMarchi had been culled from a Day On The Green tour to make way for iconic UK rocker Billy Idol. 'Guys, I'm sorry to say this and we do not know why this has happened but The Superjesus and the Baby Animals have been booted off A Day On The Green in favour of adding Billy Idol,' she wrote. 'So it's now Billy, Cheap Trick, The Angels and The Choirboys. They will refund your tickets if you are no longer interested in attending this sausage fest.' 'It still is very much a male-dominated world, and I don't think it's changed as much as it should have, but at least we're aware of it now,' she said. 'The discussions are open, but it's still very much a male-dominated world' In a response to The Music, A Day On The Green promoter Michael Newton said gender did not play a role in the decision. 'I did not even think about it being a gender issue. It's bullshit, to be honest,' he said. The Superjesus are currently riding high off the back of the release of their fourth studio album in March. The self-titled album debuted in the top ten of the ARIA Album chart upon release marking their first top ten berth since 2000's Jet Age. The single, Something Good, given the remix treatment by Paul Mac, is also currently sitting at number 15 on the ARIA Club Tracks chart. Hot on the heels of their latest success, The Superjesus are now embarking on a national tour.
News.com.au
06-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
The Superjesus' Sarah McLeod says music industry sexism hasn't improved in 30 years
The last thing Sarah McLeod had on her bingo card when her alt-rock band The Superjesus returned to the top 10 with their first new music in 20 years was a dance hit. The Adelaide rockers have been holding sway in the ARIA Club chart for the past three months with the Paul Mac remix of their single Something Good. The song featured on their comeback self-titled record which also debuted in the top 10 on the ARIA Australian Album chart when it was released in March. 'I used to do dance music years ago for my solo stuff and I wrote Something Good as a club track but decided to make it into a Superjesus song,' McLeod said. 'In the back of my mind we should get a remix done of it one of these days. And now we're in the clubs.' The Superjesus kick off their national tour this weekend, playing the new album in full as a greatest hits set, with only a handful of tickets remaining for most shows. McLeod said the flood of goodwill that has greeted the band's return was unexpected and a relief as the Australian music industry struggles to engage local audiences with new homegrown music. 'I kind of assume I'm screaming into the ether and I just scream louder and just try different things,' she said. 'I'm a total hustler, I even manage the band now with Ruddy (bassist Stuart Rudd) and there's no blueprint for how to do this so we're doing a lot of YouTube tutorials.' Back in the late 1990s, The Superjesus was all over the altrock airwaves, in the top 5 of the album charts and picking up ARIA awards, with songs including Gravity, Down Again and Now and Then generating millions of streams as the band reconnects with fans in the digital era. As much as streaming has dramatically changed the music landscape, McLeod said she has discovered many things remain the same and that includes discrimination and lack of opportunities for female and non-binary artists, particularly on festival line-ups. McLeod said back in the day she thought the band missed out on coveted festival slots because 'we weren't good enough.' Now as the new chair of the Australian Women in Music advocacy group, McLeod is studying statistics from across the decades which show there has been little improvement in rectifying inequality in the industry. 'Things have changed marginally but since I took on this role and I'm looking at the statistics, I see total imbalance everywhere,' she said. 'I get reports about how many women are on festivals and it's one per cent or five per cent or 10 per cent and then it's male, male, male. 'I used to think we didn't get chosen for festivals, or another female-fronted band didn't get picked, because we weren't good enough. 'But over the years I've realised that it is still very much a blokes' game, and we play it the best we can.' The Superjesus record also proved popular with fans of old school music formats and featured in the top 10 of the ARIA Vinyl Chart. But McLeod was shocked when fans started petitioning them on social media to also release in on CD. The singer loves the idea that vinyl and CD versions of records are now considered 'merchandise' souvenirs in the same way fans collect T-shirts and stickers. 'It's exciting in an industry that you work so hard to make a product and give it away for free (on streaming) that people are into vinyl and CD again,' she said. 'My mum asked me how we make money from a new record and I told her we don't, it's a marketing tool. We put out new music so that people will come to the show and if they buy a ticket to the shows, that's when we make money. But we don't make money from the actual record.'
