'At her heart she was a real family woman' - Family remember saviour of Wentworth Woodhouse Dame Julie Kenny
“At her heart she was a real family woman and a mother and a grandmother”
The children of a Sheffield woman who helped save one of the country’s largest stately homes have said that beyond her immense charity work they will remember her ‘motherliness’.
Dame Julie Kenny, from Hillsborough, rose to prominence as a successful business woman - however, for many it’s her unwavering support for the region’s heritage that has made her such a landmark figure.
In 2017 she took on the role as chair of Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, helping secure the purchase of one of Britain’s largest stately homes and reopen it to the public.
Over the following eight years she played a pivotal role in restoring the Grade I-listed building, before tragically passing away in 2025.
“Wentworth Woodhouse is a fantastic place and mum really wanted it to be a beacon of home and something for the people of Rotherham,” Dame Julie’s son, Laurence Kenny, told The Star.
“So to see that partially fulfilled now is really nice for us personally.
“The job’s still not done at Wentworth really, there’s still a lot of restoration to undertake and eye-watering sums of money to be raised, but it’s fantastic to see people walking through the doors, enjoying the gardens with their families and for it to be open to the public as it should be for a beacon of national built heritage.
Charlotte Kenny-Martin, Dame Julie’s daughter, added: “And it’s a fabulous legacy for our mum, especially when it’s completed.
“It’ll be something that we definitely come back to for the rest of our lives.”
Dame Julie unexpectedly passed at Doncaster Royal Infirmary in February 2025 at the age of 67, shortly after undergoing an emergency surgery.
During an inquest at Doncaster Coroner’s Court in February 2026, witnesses explained how signs of a twisted intestine were not picked up by outsourced radiologists, particularly a ‘swirling of the mesentery’ that was caught on a CT scan.
It was ultimately concluded that if she’d have had a CT scan a day sooner, there was a possibility of her survival.
The family’s solicitor, James Drydale, explained ahead of time: “We had concerns from the very beginning about the reporting of the initial CT scan on February 8, 2025.
“That was outsourced to a company called Everlight and we heard in the inquest from the reporting radiologist who’s based over in India - he said in the inquest that he would have reported that scan differently had he known what would likely have happened.
“That should have been, in my view, his position from the start.
“A concern I have, and I know the family share this concern, is where is the quality control for outsourced radiology - it’s really used very widely in the country.
“Can the public be reassured that there is sufficient control over that quality, because people should expect to have scans reported properly to avoid very horrible incidents like this from happening.”
HM Coroner Nicola Mundy ultimately chose not to submit a prevention of future deaths report as Everlight have said they have changed practice, though she did say she will write to the Royal College of Radiologists about complications from outsourcing radiology reports.
The family also raised concerns about Dame Julie’s quality of care in her final weeks, who was left in ‘pretty awful pain’ while waiting six days for a consultant.
“[The inquest] was a very challenging week for us, personally and for the rest of the family as well to hear the depth of the questions that were asked and the care that mum received in those couple of weeks that she was in hospital,” Laurence added.
“It was disappointing for us to hear some of that testimony that was given to the coroner in court, particularly around the initial scan and the misreporting of it and the care mum received in that first week she was in hospital.
“We think there could have been more done.”
While the family have gone through such immense loss over the past year, they do point to the outpouring of love from the public as something that they found comfort in.
Laurence said: “I personally thought that there would be quite a wide outpouring, I don’t think at the time we appreciated how big that was going to be.
“At the public memorial that was held last July, there was 600 people at Sheffield Cathedral to remember mum and the legacy that she leaves in the region and nationally as well.
“It was certainly heart-warming to see the lives that she touched and the people that maybe even knew her for five minutes or half an hour at a dinner but were really touched by her warmth and how she approached them.”
And while Dame Julie’s legacy will undoubtedly live on, with her portrait hanging in Wentworth Woodhouse and actions keeping the more than 300 rooms in the building standing, her family will forever have a more personal memory to hold onto.
“The overriding sense from us as children is her motherliness and her love for her family.
“You know despite all the accolades she had in business and the achievements she had with Wentworth Woodhouse and various other things, at her heart she was a real family woman and a mother and a grandmother.
“Those are the things that stay with us. “