The East Park, leading down to Menagerie House and Menagerie Wood,was the site of some of the earliest and most important landscape design. There was an early 18th century octagonal pool and cascade, by the baroque east front of the house. Formal avenues then marched eastwards, leading to the Menagerie Wood and Cascade, which were the height of fashion when Thomas Wentworth introduced them.

William Wentworth removed much of the formal layout, including the avenues, leaving just a few individual trees; limes that are today just to the south of the Church are remnants of these avenues. In their stead, he planted individual trees and small copses, disposed in informal groups. Several of these trees survive, most notably a copseof beech trees, not far from the southern border of Coronation Wood,and a group of sessile oaks atop a knoll, in the middle of the Park.

In the middle of the Park, William transformed what had been stew ponds into an elegant, serpentine lake. Across the Serpentine,a Palladian Bridge was erected, carrying an informal drive that led from the Strafford Gate, near the Menagerie House, through the Park and towards Wentworth Castle. Over the following two centuries, the eastern parkland was the subject of further change and some neglect. It is exciting to discover, however, that a far-seeing officer from Barnsley Council, in the last two decades, has encouraged the development of young saplings, grown on from the 18th century trees in the park. These young trees are the progeny of those that have thrived in the park for two centuries and should be ideally suited to this particular environment.

The ultimate aim is to recover the Serpentine, in whole or in part.The immediate task, however, will be to restore the Palladian Bridgeand improve the management of the pasture. In particular, it is intended that some of the young trees will be moved and replanted, as individual specimens or copses, all of which will be protected from stock. The aim is to reflect the 18th century planting, designed to frame and reveal the façade of the Castle, as one approaches it from the east.