Penshaw Monument
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The Penshaw Monument (officially the Earl of Durham's Monument) is a memorial in the style of an ancient Greek temple on Penshaw Hill in the metropolitan borough of the City of Sunderland, North East England. It is located near the village of Penshaw, between the towns of Washington and Houghton-le-Spring in historic County Durham. The monument was built between 1844 and 1845Template:Efn to commemorate John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham (1792–1840), Governor-General of British North America and author of the Durham Report on the future governance of the American territories. Owned by the National Trust since 1939, it is a Grade I listed structure.
The monument was designed by John and Benjamin Green and built by Thomas Pratt of Bishopwearmouth using local gritstone at a cost of around £6000; the money was raised by subscription. On 28 August 1844, while it was partially complete, its foundation stone was laid by Thomas Dundas, 2nd Earl of Zetland in a Masonic ceremony which drew tens of thousands of spectators. Based on the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, it is a tetrastyle temple of the Doric order, with eighteen columns—seven along its longer sides and four along its shorter ones—and no roof or cella (inner chamber).
One column contains a spiral staircase leading to a parapeted walkway along the entablature. This staircase was closed to the public in 1926 after a 15-year-old boy fell to his death from the top of the monument. The structure fell into disrepair in the 1930s and was fenced off, then repaired in 1939. It has since undergone further restoration, including extensive work in 1979 during which its western side was dismantled. Floodlit at night since 1988, it is often illuminated in different colours to mark special occasions. The National Trust began to offer supervised tours of the walkway in 2011.
Penshaw Monument is a local landmark, visible from up to Template:Convert away. It appears on the crest of Sunderland A.F.C. and is viewed nationally as a symbol of the North East. It has been praised for the grandeur, simplicity and symbolic significance of its design, especially when seen from a distance. However, critics have said it is poorly constructed and lacks purpose; nineteenth-century architectural journals condemned its lack of a roof and the hollowness of its columns and walls. It features no depiction of the man it honours, and has been widely described as a folly.
LocationEdit
Penshaw Monument stands on the south-western edge of the summit of Penshaw Hill,Template:SfnTemplate:Efn an isolated Template:Convert knoll formed by the erosion of an escarpment of the Durham Magnesian Limestone Plateau.Template:Sfn The National Trust landholding at the site totals Template:Convert,Template:Sfn including Template:Convert of deciduous woodland to the west of the monument.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn The woodland is split into Dawson's Plantation in the north and Penshaw Wood in the south.Template:Sfn Both the summit of the hill and the woodland are considered Sites of Nature Conservation Interest by Sunderland City Council.Template:Sfn
The monument's car park is accessible from Chester Road (the A183); three footpaths lead from the car park to the monument, which can also be reached from Grimestone Bank in the north-west and Hill Lane in the south.Template:Sfn The National Heritage List for England gives the monument's statutory address as Hill Lane,<ref name="he"/> but Sunderland City Council lists the property as located on Chester Road.<ref name="mysunderland">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There have been few changes to the site since the monument's construction, although signs, fences and floodlights have been added, and footpaths have been improved by the National Trust.Template:Sfn There is an Ordnance Survey trig point to the west of the monument.Template:Sfn
The site receives over 60,000 visitors every year;<ref name="henderson2019">Template:Cite news</ref> people come to visit the monument, admire the views or engage in walking, jogging or photography.Template:Sfn The Trust has placed a geocache at the site.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Penshaw Bowl, an Easter egg rolling competition for children, takes place on the hill every Maundy Thursday;Template:Sfn this tradition is over a century old.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The hill is also popular for Bonfire Night and New Year celebrations.Template:Sfn
The surrounding area was formerly industrialised, but is now mainly arable farmland.Template:Sfn The site is in the Shiney Row ward;<ref name="hansard">Template:Cite Hansard</ref> it is south-west of Sunderland, north-east of Chester-le-Street, south-east of Washington and north of Houghton-le-Spring.<ref name="map">Template:Google maps</ref> To the north is the Washington Wetland Centre, managed by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust; to the south is Herrington Country Park.Template:Sfn The monument is visible from Template:Convert away on a sunny day<ref name="gillan">Template:Cite news</ref> and can be seen from the A1 road;Template:Sfn from the hill, it is sometimes possible to see the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland and the central tower of Durham Cathedral,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as well as the sea.<ref name="henderson2005">Template:Cite news</ref>
History of the siteEdit
There is evidence that Penshaw Hill may have been an Iron Age hillfort: the remains of what may be ramparts have been identified at the site, and the expansive views from the hill would have made it a strategically advantageous location for a fort.Template:Sfn In March 1644, during the First English Civil War, the hill served as an encampment for an army of Scottish Covenanters who fled there after a failed attack on Newcastle before the Battle of Boldon Hill.Template:Sfn The hill is associated with the local legend of the Lambton Worm; a folk song written by C. M. Leumane in 1867 describes the worm wrapping itself "ten times roond Pensha Hill".Template:SfnTemplate:Efn The hill is the site of an 18th-century limestone quarry on Dawson's Plantation, which is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest;Template:Sfn farming and quarrying on nearby land continued after the monument's construction.Template:Sfn
The landholding is on the north-eastern edge of the historical township of Penshaw;Template:Sfn the original village of Old Penshaw is approximately Template:Convert from the monument.Template:Sfn After Penshaw Colliery opened in 1792, a new pit village was established to the south-west of the original village – it was known as New Penshaw.Template:Sfn The earliest record of Penshaw is in the Boldon Book of 1183, where it is described as being leased by William Basset from a Jordan de Escoland, later Jordan de Dalton.Template:Sfn Other former landowners of the vill include the Bowes-Lyon and Lambton families.Template:Sfn The land on which the monument stands was eventually passed to the Vane-Tempest-Stewart estate and became the property of Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, who gifted it as the site of the structure.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn
Conception and constructionEdit
BackgroundEdit
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John George Lambton (born 1792) was the son of William Henry Lambton and Lady Anne Barbara Frances Villiers. He attended Eton College, then joined the 10th Royal Hussars in 1809. Lambton became Member of Parliament for County Durham in 1813; politically, he had a reputation for radicalism and proposing electoral reform, earning him the nickname "Radical Jack". In 1828 he was raised to the peerage, becoming Baron Durham. In 1830 Durham was made Lord Privy Seal in Earl Grey's cabinet and was charged with producing a draft of the bill that became the Reform Act 1832. He resigned his position in 1833, and was created Earl of Durham shortly afterwards. He was a Freemason and became Deputy Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1834.<ref name="odnb">Template:Cite ODNB</ref>
The second Melbourne ministry appointed him Ambassador to Russia in 1835; he spent two years in the post. In 1838 Durham agreed to become Governor-General of British North America, and was sent to the British colony of Lower Canada (now Quebec) to deal with rebellions in the region. After a failed attempt to exile rebel leaders to Bermuda, he resigned from the post and left Canada after five months. His Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) recommended that Lower Canada merge with the English-speaking province of Upper Canada to anglicise its French-speaking inhabitants; it also advocated limited self-government for the colony.<ref name="odnb"/>
After an illness lasting several months, thought to be tuberculosis, he died on 28 July 1840 in Cowes, Isle of Wight.<ref name="odnb"/> On 3 August, his body was taken in his own yacht to Sunderland, then in a steamship to Lambton Castle.Template:Sfn His funeral took place on 10 August, and was attended by over 300 Freemasons; they wanted to perform a Masonic ceremony for the occasion, but were asked not to do so by Durham's family.Template:Sfn The ceremony began at the castle, where the Earl lay in state in the dining room.Template:Sfn A procession, consisting of around 450 people in carriages and hundreds more on foot, then conveyed the body to the parish church of St Mary and St Cuthbert, Chester-le-Street, where Durham was buried in his family vault.Template:Sfn A large crowd gathered to observe the procession; its size has been estimated as between 30,000 and 50,000 people.Template:Sfn The Marquess of Londonderry, a political opponent of Durham's, travelled from London to act as a pallbearer at the funeral.Template:Sfn
1840–1842: proposals and selection of the siteEdit
At a meeting at the Lambton Arms pub in Chester-le-Street on 19 August 1840, it was decided to form a Provisional Committee to raise funds for a monument to the Earl by subscription.Template:Sfn The next day, at the Assembly Rooms in Newcastle, a committee of 33 men was formed for that purpose; it included the mayors of Newcastle and Gateshead.Template:Sfn The chairman of the committee was Henry John Spearman.<ref name="nj31augp3">Template:Cite news</ref> The following motion was put forward by William Ord MP:
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That the distinguished services rendered to his country by the late John George Lambton, Earl of Durham, as an honest, able, and patriotic satesman, and as the enlightened and liberal friend to the improvement of the people in morals, education, and scientific acquirements, combined with his unceasing exercise of the most active benevolence, and of the other private virtues which adorned his character, render it the sacred duty of his fellow-countrymen to erect a public monument to perpetuate the memory of his services, his talents, and his virtues, and to act as an incitement to others to follow his bright example.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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Around £500 (Template:Inflation) was pledged at this meeting. There were initially disagreements about the site of the monument: proposals included Durham, the Earl's territorial designation; Chester-le-Street, his burial place; Sunderland, where he had trading connections; and Newcastle, due to its size.<ref name="carlisle"/> In a letter to the Durham Chronicle, published in October 1840, an anonymous subscriber to the monument urged that members of the public be allowed to submit designs, and that the final design be chosen by subscribers.<ref name="dc17oct">Template:Cite news</ref> The letter warned of a "vicious system of jobbing" in which the exercise of private influence led to the adoption of inferior designs, which it claimed had influenced the planning of other monuments such as Nelson's Column.<ref name="dc17oct"/>
At another meeting at the Bridge Hotel in Sunderland on 28 January 1842,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> William Hutt MP proposed that "the monument should be of an architectural character", and suggested Penshaw Hill as a location because it was the Earl's property,Template:Efn and the monument would be visible from much of County Durham and close to the East Coast Main Line.Template:Sfn Durham's wife had expressed support for this site before her death.Template:Sfn According to The Times, "a more suitable spot for the erection of a monument to the late lamented Earl could not have been selected".<ref name="times1844"/> Hutt hoped to erect a statue of Durham, and read out a letter from a sculptor who had offered to make one.Template:Sfn By this point, around £3000 (Template:Inflation) had been subscribed.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn More money was later raised by a London-based committee.Template:Sfn
1842–1843: selection of the designEdit
The committee sought advice from the Royal Institute of British Architects in London.<ref name="dc15july1842">Template:Cite news</ref> Its secretary, Thomas Leverton Donaldson, advised approaching five or six skilled architects named by the Institute privately, rather than advertising publicly for designs.<ref name="dc15july1842"/> Donaldson told Hutt that if a public call for designs was made, the most skilled architects would not compete.<ref name="dc15july1842"/> The Institute surveyed Penshaw Hill and produced instructions to the architects, which described the hill and indicated subscribers' preference for a column.<ref name="dc15july1842"/> The instructions stated that the project could not cost more than £3000.<ref name="dc15july1842"/> Six of the designs submitted to the committee were exhibited at the institute's premises in London before they were seen in the north.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn These were all either columns or obelisks, each topped with a statue of the Earl.Template:Sfn At a meeting in Sunderland on 8 July 1842, subscribers examined proposals by seven architects.<ref name="dc15july1842"/> These were:
- John Augustus Cory—Two designs: a column in the style of Italianate architecture; and a column based on those of the Temple of HephaestusTemplate:Efn
- Thomas Leverton Donaldson—Design unknown
- Harvey Lonsdale Elmes—Two designs: a Grecian column topped by a temple containing an urn; and a column with projecting balconies in imitation of a Roman rostral column
- Charles Fowler—A Norman column, similar to those in the nave of Durham Cathedral
- Arthur Mee—A column; details unknown
- John Buonarotti Papworth—An obelisk, with a bronze statue and sarcophagus at the front
- Robert Wallace—A Doric column, Template:Convert in diameter, based on those of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Agrigento and topped with a podium and a metal tripod<ref name="dc15july1842"/>
Some present at the meeting were unhappy that the preference for a column had been expressed—one felt that "it would have been better to have left the genius of the artists unfettered", and another wished to receive more designs before a decision was made.Template:Sfn There was some consternation that the building of the monument was not taking place as quickly as had been anticipated.Template:Sfn The Durham Chronicle disapproved of the proposed designs, writing that "a column, standing in solitary nakedness, is a palpable absurdity".<ref name="dc22july">Template:Cite news</ref> It criticised the designs of Grey's Monument and Nelson's Column, believing them to belong to "the candlestick style of monumental architecture", and wrote that the monument to the Earl of Durham should be "lofty, massive, durable, and distinctive—simple in its features, and grand in its general effect".<ref name="dc22july"/>
On 8 November 1842, an executive committee with the power to choose a design and begin construction of the monument was formed in Newcastle.Template:Sfn In May 1843, the committee met to consider new designs that it had received, and decided to recommend John and Benjamin Green's proposal of a Grecian Doric temple to subscribers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> By July, the design had been officially selected.Template:Sfn The Greens were father and son, and also designed Grey's Monument and the Theatre Royal in Newcastle.<ref name="henderson2005"/> The initial design was in the style of the temples of Paestum, with an arrangement of four by six columns; this was later changed to one based on the Temple of Hephaestus.<ref name="dca30aug"/>Template:Efn It was envisaged that the hill would become an enclosed pleasure garden after the monument's construction.<ref name="dca30aug"/>
1844: construction and foundation stone ceremonyEdit
The stone used in the construction was a gift from the Marquess of Londonderry; it came from his quarries in Penshaw, about Template:Convert from the hill.<ref name="times1844"/>Template:Efn In a letter to subscribers, the Marquess explained his decision to provide the stone: "it has afforded me great satistfaction in a very humble manner to aid in recording my admiration of [the Earl of Durham's] talents and abilities, however I may have differed with him on public or political subjects".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Lime used in the construction was made in kilns owned by the Earl of Durham, located in the nearby village of Newbottle; sand was obtained from a sand pit at the foot of Penshaw Hill.<ref name="times1844"/> The materials were brought up the hill by a temporary spiral railway.<ref name="times1844"/> Holes on the stone blocks of the monument's stylobate indicate that they were transported with a lifting device called a lewis.Template:Sfn
In January and February 1844, an invitation to tender for the monument's construction was placed in the Durham Chronicle and Newcastle Courant newspapers.<ref name="tender1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="tender2">Template:Cite news</ref> The deadline to submit tenders was initially 15 February, but was later extended to 1 March.<ref name="tender1"/><ref name="tender2"/> By 15 March the builder Thomas Pratt of Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland, had been awarded the contract;<ref name="dc15march">Template:Cite news</ref> little is known about him.Template:Sfn By March, operations to clear the ground at the site had begun;<ref name="dc15march"/> an invitation to tender for the transportation of the stone from the quarry to Penshaw Hill appeared in the Durham Chronicle on 29 March.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> By May, a trench for the monument's foundations had been dug.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The foundation stone of the monument was laid on 28 August 1844 by Thomas Dundas, 2nd Earl of Zetland, Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England. The construction had been underway for several months:<ref name="times1844"/> all the columns had been built to around half of their final height, except two at the front of the structure.<ref name="dca30aug">Template:Cite news</ref> The monument's scaffolding was adorned with flags for the ceremony.<ref name="dc30aug1844">Template:Cite news</ref> The Great North of England Railway Company organised special trains from Sunderland, Newcastle, Durham and South Shields to bring spectators to the event, and galleries were erected on either side of the monument to allow them to watch the ceremony<ref name="times1844"/>—most of those in the galleries were women.<ref name="dca30aug"/> The Durham Chronicle estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 spectators were present;<ref name="dc30aug1844"/> the Durham County Advertiser reported at least 30,000.<ref name="dca30aug"/>
A pavilion was put up in a field to the south of Penshaw Hill to accommodate the Freemasons present,<ref name="times1844"/> including 400 members of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Durham.<ref name="henderson2005"/> At around 1:30 pm, the Freemasons formed a procession and ascended the hill, accompanied by a marching band and the monument's building committee.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn The Grand Treasurer placed a phial containing Victorian coins into a cavity in the foundation stone, which was then covered with a brass plate bearing an inscription that dedicated the monument to the Earl of Durham.<ref name="times1844"/>Template:Efn Zetland then spread mortar on the stone with a silver trowel, specially engraved for the occasion.<ref name="times1844"/> A second stone was then lowered on top of it as the band played "Rule, Britannia!",Template:Sfn and Zetland used a plummet, level and square to adjust the upper stone before strewing it with corn, wine and oil.<ref name="times1844"/> The Reverend Robert Green of Newcastle said a prayer and the Freemasons examined the plans of the monument before returning to their pavilion as the band played "God Save the Queen".<ref name="times1844"/>Template:Sfn The Times described the event thus:
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[A] more animated and picturesque scene was perhaps never witnessed in this part of the country.Template:Nbsp... The gorgeous insignia of the masonic brethren brilliantly reflected the rays of an almost vertical sun, the various banners fluttering in the gentle breeze, the gay dresses of the ladies, and the vast assemblage of spectators on every side, formed altogether a magnificent spectacle.<ref name="times1844"/>{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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That evening, two dinners were held in Sunderland to celebrate the event: one at the Wheatsheaf in Monkwearmouth and another at the Bridge Hotel.<ref name="dca30aug"/> The former was attended by many of the Freemasons who had participated in the ceremony; the latter accommodated many members of the gentry.<ref name="dca30aug"/> A dispute arose at one of these dinners when the vice-chairman, a Liberal solicitor called A. J. Moore, refused to take part in a toast in honour of the Marquess of Londonderry, a Tory.<ref name="banquet">Template:Cite news</ref> Moore left the room, and the toast was drunk in his absence.<ref name="banquet"/> The Newcastle Journal condemned Moore's behaviour as a "brutal display of corrupt feeling, unmanly resentment, and base ingratitude".<ref name="banquet"/> In September 1844, one of the monument's architects threatened legal action against J. C. Farrow, who had announced the publication of a lithograph depicting the structure.<ref name="lithograph">Template:Cite news</ref> Green claimed that the monument—which was not yet finished—could not be depicted without reference to the architectural plans, and that the lithograph infringed his "rights of copy and design".<ref name="lithograph"/> The Durham Chronicle called Green's claim "utterly preposterous and absurd".<ref name="lithograph"/> In October, the Carlisle Journal reported that only one of the monument's columns had been topped with its capital, and that the structure was expected to be completed in 1845.<ref name="carlisle"/> The total cost of the construction was approximately £6000 (Template:Inflation).Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Subsequent historyEdit
1880s to 1920s: early damage and fatal accidentEdit
On 29 May 1889, the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne was told of damage to the monument: many of the stones forming its stylobate had been removed and rolled down Penshaw Hill.Template:Sfn The stonework was repaired in the 1920s after it became cracked.<ref name="echo1936">Template:Cite news</ref>
It was once possible to pay a penny for the key to the staircase to the top of the structure.<ref name="echo1953">Template:Cite news</ref> This ended after a fatal accident:<ref name="echo1953"/> on 5 April (Easter Monday) 1926, Temperley Arthur Scott, a 15-year-old apprentice mason from Fatfield, fell to his death from the top of Penshaw Monument.<ref name="echo-fall">Template:Cite news</ref> There were around 20 people at the top when he fell.<ref name="echo-fall"/> He had ascended the structure with three of his friends; the group had climbed around the top twice and were attempting to do so a third time.<ref name="echo-fall"/> Scott tried to climb over a pediment to cross between the two walkways when he stumbled and fell Template:Convert.Template:Sfn<ref name="echo-fall"/> A doctor pronounced him dead at the scene.<ref name="echo-fall"/> A police officer told an inquest at the Primitive Methodist Chapel in Fatfield that it was usual for people to visit the top of the monument on public holidays.<ref name="echo-fall"/> He said the stonework at the top of the pediment was worn, suggesting that many people had scaled it.<ref name="echo-fall"/> The deputy coroner declared a verdict of accidental death and recommended either that spiked railings be put on the pediments, or that the door to the staircase be permanently locked.<ref name="echo-fall"/> The door was kept locked from then on; after repeated break-ins it was sealed with cement, and later bricks.<ref name="echo1953"/>
1930s to 1970s: National Trust restorationEdit
Template:Multiple image At a conference organised by the Council for the Preservation of Rural England in Leamington Spa in summer 1937, J. E. McCutcheon of Seaham Town Council spoke about the need to protect tourist destinations in County Durham.<ref name="echo19oct39">Template:Cite news</ref> McCutcheon's comments interested B. L. Thompson, who was attending the conference on behalf of the National Trust; the two men began corresponding.<ref name="echo19oct39"/> As a result, the Trust agreed to take over Penshaw Monument from John Lambton, 5th Earl of Durham on the condition that covenants be imposed on Cocken Wood, an area of woodland near Finchale Priory.<ref name="echo19oct39"/> The monument became the Trust's property in September 1939.<ref name="gillan"/> In April 1950 it was classed as a Grade I listed building on the National Heritage List for England; its official name is the Earl of Durham's Monument.<ref name="he"/> Grade I buildings make up only 2.5% of listed buildings, and are described by Historic England as "of exceptional interest".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1936 the Sunderland Echo and Shipping Gazette reported that multiple large stones had fallen from the monument and a fence had been erected around it<ref name="echo1936"/>—the fence was wooden and covered in barbed wire, and was still there in 1938.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> By July 1939 repair work was being carried out, and scaffolding was present around some of the monument's columns.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It was not damaged during the Second World War, despite raids on Houghton-le-Spring during the Blitz.Template:Sfn In 1942 it was struck by lightning; this caused damage to the top of the column containing the staircase.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This damage—a hole at the top of the column and a fissure extending half its length—was still visible a decade later.<ref name="echo1953"/>
In 1951 the Sunderland Echo reported that children had unsealed the door to the staircase and climbed the monument to search for pigeons' eggs; the National Trust employed a local builder to reseal it.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1959 the National Coal Board repaired the monument after it was damaged by subsistence caused by mining: its northern, western and southern sides had become cracked, and part of the walkway had detached and overhung the interior.<ref name="times1959">Template:Cite news</ref> Stone blocks were replaced with concrete slabs with stone facings.<ref name="times1959"/> Because of further settlement, Penshaw Monument was underpinned in 1978.Template:Sfn The next year the western side was taken apart, and damaged lintels were replaced with ones made of reinforced concrete;Template:Sfn the new lintels have buff-coloured artificial stone facings.Template:Sfn
1980s to 2000s: floodlighting and further repairEdit
In 1982 a grant from the Countryside Commission allowed the National Trust to purchase Template:Convert of land surrounding the monument,<ref name="henderson2005"/>Template:Sfn including much of the south-facing side of Penshaw Hill and the woodland to the north-west.Template:Sfn The monument has been illuminated at night by floodlights since 1988, when Sunderland City Council paid £50,000 (Template:Inflation) for them.Template:Sfn Between 1994 and 1996, several of these lights were stolen; Northumbria Police said they may have been used as grow lights for the cultivation of cannabis.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1994, The Journal reported that Penshaw Monument "might be sinking" after two surveys showed the levels of the bottoms of the columns were not even.<ref name="ffrench">Template:Cite news</ref> The National Trust hired the civil engineer Professor John Knapton to carry out a third, more comprehensive survey of the monument to assess whether movement had occurred.<ref name="ffrench"/>
In 1996 the National Trust said it was spending over £100,000 (Template:Inflation) to restore the monument.<ref name="times1996">Template:Cite news</ref> Its columns and lintels had deteriorated and were repaired.<ref name="times1996"/> Its cast iron cramps had rusted, causing them to expand and stress the monument's stonework—these were replaced with stainless steel cramps bedded in lead.<ref name="times1996"/> Repointing was done using lime mortar made from lime quarried at the National Trust's pits on the Wallington estate in Northumberland.<ref name="times1996"/>Template:Efn However, the surface of the stone, which has been blackened by soot, was not cleaned so that it would remain "a reminder of the area's tradition of heavy industry".<ref name="times1996"/> The Trust later said: "Now that mining has ceased, the blackness seems particularly evocative and proposals for cleaning have been resisted".<ref name="henderson2005"/> On 16 November 2005 a group of 60 volunteers, recruited by the National Trust from local businesses, universities and Boldon School, South Tyneside,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> assisted with the upkeep of the monument by replacing the kissing gate at its entrance, building a plinth and path for its interpretation area, repairing and replacing the steps leading to it and planting Template:Convert of hedge.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2010s and 2020s: reopening of the staircase and vandalismEdit
In August 2011 the National Trust opened the staircase to the public for the first time since 1926 and began to provide guided tours of the top of the structure.<ref name="bbc30aug2011">Template:Cite news</ref> More than 500 people attended the reopening, although only 75 were initially allowed to climb it; further tours took place in subsequent months.<ref name="bbc30aug2011"/> The trust now normally provides tours every weekend between Good Friday and the end of September.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Tours last 15 minutes and only five people are allowed to go up at once; National Trust members can do so for free, but non-members must pay £5.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> By March 2013, over 3600 people had taken the tours.<ref name="tallentire">Template:Cite news</ref>
In March 2014 the council announced that it would spend £43,000 to replace the floodlights<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> with 18 new energy-efficient LED lights, which it expected would save £8000 per year in operating costs; they produce a softer, whiter light than their predecessors, and can be programmed to illuminate the monument in different colours.<ref name="diffley">Template:Cite news</ref> They were paid for with a government loan and were expected to reduce annual energy consumption from 75,000 kilowatt-hours to less than 10,000.<ref name="diffley"/> An archaeological watching brief was carried out during the lights' installation.Template:Sfn In April 2015 nine of the new lights, worth £20,000, were stolen; thieves used bolt cutters to breach the monument's security gates and open the lights' steel enclosures.<ref name="henderson">Template:Cite news</ref> The installation was fully complete by August 2015.<ref name="diffley"/> The monument has since been illuminated in various colours to commemorate events, including the colours of the flag of France after the November 2015 Paris attacks;<ref name="gillan"/> the colours of Hays Travel in November 2020 to commemorate John Hays;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the colours of the Union Jack on 31 January 2020 to mark Brexit;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and blue on 24 March 2020 as a tribute to National Health Service and social care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On 26 July 2014, extensive areas of the monument were vandalised with red spray paint.<ref name="bbc12aug">Template:Cite news</ref> The graffiti included text and symbols related to the 2005 film V for Vendetta.<ref name="bbc12aug"/> The National Trust said it had hired specialist contractors to remove the graffiti at a "considerable cost".<ref name="bbc30jul">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Although the Trust did not ask for donations, local residents and businesses gave £1500 to pay for the removal.<ref name="bbc12aug"/> In 2019, as an April Fools' Day joke, it was announced that Penshaw Monument would be "moved stone by stone" to Beamish Museum in County Durham.<ref name="beamish">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The museum claimed the move was due to "the discovery of an infestation of a rare breed of worm in Penshaw Hill"—a reference to the Lambton Worm legend.<ref name="beamish"/> In August 2019 the National Trust received £200,000 from Highways England's Environment Designated Fund.<ref name="henderson2019" /> It said it would use the money to provide better access to the monument by replacing old timber steps with new ones made of sandstone and limestone, and improve signage at the site using information from new ground surveys.<ref name="nt2020">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Repairs were also carried out on the monument itself, including stone repair and repointing on its stylobate.<ref name="nt2020"/> It was originally proposed to add a new spur path, and ditches at the side of the main path with soakaway pits for drainage; however, these plans were abandoned, partly because of their archaeological impact.Template:Sfn As part of the Lumiere in Durham light festival in November 2021, the monument is to be illuminated with 140,000 separate points of light to commemorate the UK dead in the COVID-19 pandemic.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ArchitectureEdit
Although it was intended as a memorial to the Earl of Durham, many sources describe Penshaw Monument as a folly;Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn it features no statue or sculpture of the man it was intended to commemorate.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn The monument was built in the style of a temple of the Doric order.<ref name="he"/> It is based on the Temple of Hephaestus, which is on the Agoraios Kolonos hill on the north-west side of the Ancient Agora of Athens.Template:Sfn The National Trust describes it as a replica of the temple;<ref name="nt">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> however, according to the Sunderland Echo, "at best it could be said it is 'slightly similar to' the Temple of Hephaestus".<ref name="gillan"/>Template:Efn
It is an example of Greek Revival architecture, which is rare in the historic County Durham.Template:Sfn The style first appeared there Template:Circa at country houses like Eggleston Hall; Penshaw Monument is a late example, as is Monkwearmouth Railway Station.Template:Sfn John Martin Robinson cites the monument alongside Bowes Museum as an example of the "eccentric buildings" found in the county.Template:Sfn Nikolaus Pevsner noted that the structure's proximity to the Victoria Viaduct produces a rare juxtaposition of Greek and Roman architecture.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn A booklet produced by Tyne and Wear County Council Museums compares Penshaw Monument to Jesmond Old Cemetery, whose gates were designed by John Dobson; it says that the monument "shares the Arcadian intentions of Dobson's Cemetery, but is very much more successful".Template:Sfn In her survey of the monument commissioned by the National Trust, Penny Middleton states that its "closest architectural and cultural relation" may be the National Monument of Scotland, an unfinished Grecian temple on Calton Hill in Edinburgh.Template:Sfn
DescriptionEdit
Penshaw Monument is Template:Convert long, Template:Convert wide and Template:Convert high,Template:Sfn making it the biggest structure serving only as a memorial in North East England.Template:Sfn It is made of gritstone ashlar,<ref name="he"/>Template:SfnTemplate:Efn which was yellow at first, but has darkened.Template:Sfn The stone was originally held together by steel pins and brackets.Template:Sfn Graffiti is present on many areas of the monument, in the form of both carvings and ink.Template:Sfn Its foundations originally sat on limestone Template:Convert below the ground.<ref name="times1844">Template:Cite news</ref> The base consists of the upper stylobate and the lower stereobate<ref name="elevation">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>—the columns sit on the stylobate, which is made of large gritstone blocks.<ref name="he"/>Template:Sfn The height of the base varies from Template:Convert at the south-west corner to Template:Convert at the south-east.<ref name="elevation"/> When the monument was built there were no steps leading up to the stylobate.Template:Sfn The floor consists of setts,Template:Sfn which are pointed in mortar and laid to fallsTemplate:Efn to diagonal flagstones.Template:Sfn These flagstones direct rainwater to a central gulley.Template:Sfn
The monument is a tetrastyle structure.Template:Sfn It has 18 tapered, unfluted columns:Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn seven along the north- and south-facing sides and four facing the east and west.<ref name="elevation"/> The columns are Template:Convert in diameter,Template:Sfn and Template:Convert high.<ref name="elevation"/> There are two parapeted walkwaysTemplate:Efn running from east to west at the top of the monument;<ref name="roof">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the parapets are Template:Convert tall.<ref name="henderson2011">Template:Cite news</ref> One column—the second from the east on the south-facing side<ref name="topographical">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>—contains a 74-step<ref name="tallentire"/> spiral staircase leading to the southern walkway.Template:Sfn<ref name="roof"/> The columns support a deep entablature, whose blocking course serves as the walkways;<ref name="times1844"/>Template:Sfn the columns, and the walls of the foundation and entablature, are hollow.Template:Efn The entablature is made up of the architrave, frieze and cornice; the architrave and cornice are simple in design, and the frieze is adorned with triglyphs, although these are stylised and lack grooves.Template:Sfn There is a triangular pediment at each end of the entablature;Template:Sfn the total height of the entablature and pediments is Template:Convert.<ref name="elevation"/>
The structure has no roof,<ref name="he"/> leading The Illustrated London News to call it hypaethral;Template:Sfn however, The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal considered this adjective inappropriate.Template:Sfn It asserted that "[a]n 'hypoethral' temple does not mean one without any roof at allTemplate:Nbsp... but only that peculiar kind of temple in which the cella was left partly uncovered"—the monument has no cella.Template:Sfn The Athenaeum called it "not only hypaethral, but hypaethral in issimoTemplate:Efn—and after the most extraordinary fashion", and remarked, "Possibly it was at first intended that there should be a roof, but in order to save expense, it was afterwards thought that such covering might be dispensed with".Template:Sfn According to the council, the monument was indeed originally intended to have a roof and interior walls but these were never built due to a lack of funding.Template:Sfn However, The Chronicle has reported that this is a myth and a roof was never planned.<ref name="seddon"/>Template:Efn
Reception and impactEdit
19th centuryEdit
Before its completion, the Carlisle Journal said Penshaw Monument would be "one of England's proudest architectural wonders, and a fitting memorial of one of its wisest statesmen".<ref name="carlisle"/> However, its design initially met with a hostile response in architectural circles: in 1844 The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal called it "as arrant a piece of 'nonsense architecture' as can well be imagined" and derisively compared it to a cattle pound.Template:Sfn The Art Union was similarly scathing: it was critical of the idea of a Greek temple, which it said "does not bespeak much of either invention or judgement". It concluded: "To us it appears to be one of the most absurd, ill-imagined, and ill-contrived things ever devised, utterly devoid of significancy, purpose, or meaning."Template:Sfn
The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal termed the presence of pediments despite the absence of a roof a "gross and palpable violation of meaning and common sense".Template:Sfn The Athenaeum was similarly critical of the roofless pediments—"the building will look as if there had originally been a roof to it, which had fallen in!"—and expressed disapproval of the lack of cella and inner walls, writing that the architects had "cut the Gordian knot" by omitting them.Template:Sfn The decision to make the walls and columns hollow was condemned by The Athenaeum, which called the structure "nearly as much a sham, as if it were composed of cast iron coloured in imitation of stone" and said it "may be intended as characteristicTemplate:Nbsp... of an age which estimates plausible appearances above solid worth".Template:Sfn The Art Union agreed: the hollowness of the columns, it said, "partakes too much of sham construction, with little if any thing to recommend it on the score of economy".Template:Sfn
The Athenaeum wrote that climbing the monument's stairs could be dangerous,Template:Sfn and The Art Union condemned the staircase as "dreadfully narrow and inconvenient".Template:Sfn The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal believed that those who ascended the monument would "have to promenade somewhat after the fashion of crows in a gutter", and suggested that the architects ought to have provided a terrace on the roof of the monument, accessible by a wider staircase.Template:Sfn The Athenaeum expressed confusion at the absence of a statue or commemoration of the Earl of Durham, believing that "although it may not yet be definitely settled what it is to be, something must surely be intended".Template:Sfn
In 1850 The Times was more complimentary: "The position and architecture of this structure are both extremely fine, and viewed from the railway it produces the best effect."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At the Great Exhibition, which took place in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London in 1851, a model of the monument made of cannel coal was exhibited as part of the event's Mining and Metallurgy section.Template:Sfn In 1857 William Fordyce wrote: "The temple is remarkable for its grandeur, simplicity and imposing effect, nothing in the shape of ornament or meretricious decoration being introduced".Template:Sfn In his graphic novel Alice in Sunderland, which explores Lewis Carroll's connections to Sunderland, Bryan Talbot suggests that Carroll may have been inspired by the monument, comparing the door leading to the monument's stairs to a scene omitted from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), in which Alice knocks on a door in a tree.Template:Sfn In his 1887 story "The Flower of Weardale", author William Delisle Hay described the monument:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
Upon the crest of a bare and ugly eminence that towers above the Wear, there stands a mighty experiment in stone: a Grecian temple, splendid and solemn, with its columns and entablatures, yet blackened and stained by the sooty atmosphere, and looming grandly through the rolling smoke-clouds rising from the collieries down below, over which it lords, and with which it has no fellowship.
Queer art, curious taste, surely, which has raised this majestic memorial of an aesthetic age and clime, and planted it, severe and solid, here in the centre of the now most prosaic county of practical, toiling, prosaic England! A monstrous monument, set up a few decades ago in honour of some notability, dead and in spite of it forgotten! Yet may this modern Durham folly on Penshaw Hill emblematize the passage of the centuries, and serve, at any rate, to indicate to us a spot whereby there hangs a legend of elder England.Template:Sfn{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries}}
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20th and 21st centuriesEdit
The monument is often described by recent sources as a landmark which indicates to locals that they have returned home after a long journey;<ref name="hansard"/><ref name="henderson2005"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> it is no longer widely associated with John Lambton.Template:Sfn It is a key part of Sunderland's cultural identity,Template:Sfn frequently depicted by local photographers and artists.Template:Sfn Nationally, it is viewed as a symbol of the North East alongside the bridges of the River Tyne and the Angel of the North.Template:Sfn Sunderland A.F.C.'s current crest, adopted in 1997, features a depiction of Penshaw Monument; according to Bob Murray, the club's chairman at the time, it was included "to acknowledge the depth of support for the team outside the City boundaries".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Efn
In 2006 the monument featured alongside Hadrian's Wall and the Sage Gateshead in a television advertisement for the "Passionate People, Passionate Places" campaign, which was intended to promote North East England.<ref name="rouse">Template:Cite news</ref> It was produced by RSA Films, a company founded by the directors Tony and Ridley Scott, both natives of the North East.<ref name="rouse"/> In 2007 the structure came second in a poll of places which inspired the most pride in residents of the region, behind Durham Cathedral and Castle;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> in a survey conducted by the advertising company CBS Outdoor, 59% of people from Sunderland said Penshaw Monument was an important landmark.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It appears in Richard T. Kelly's 2008 novel Crusaders.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The National Trust has said that since it reopened the structure's staircase in 2011, "for some making it to the top has become a sort of personal pilgrimage, with many visitors finding it an inspiring and often quite emotional experience".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Bryan Ferry, lead singer of the band Roxy Music, grew up in Washington, and often visited Penshaw Hill with his father.Template:Sfn He told The Times that the monument made a significant impression on him as a child, and seemed "like a symbolTemplate:Nbsp... representing art, and another life, away from the coal fields and the hard Northeastern environment; it seemed to represent something from another civilization, that was much finer".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He has conceded, however, that the monument is "essentially a folly, a building without purpose".Template:Sfn In his book on Roxy Music, Michael Bracewell describes the experience of approaching the monument: "its immensity drawing nearer, the heroic ideal of the place falls away. Grandeur gives way to mere enormity, statement to silence, substance to emptiness.Template:Nbsp... [T]his solid memorialTemplate:Nbsp... was designed, like stage scenery, to be appreciated from a distance."Template:Sfn
Alan Robson called the monument "a striking example of Doric architecture" in an article for the Evening Chronicle.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The IndependentTemplate:'s James Wilson thought it "perplexing" and a "seriously silly folly".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The JournalTemplate:'s Tony Jones called it "a visible but under-rated symbol of regional identity".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> David Brandon described it in The Guardian as an "extraordinaryTemplate:Nbsp... symbol of the Earl of Durham's insanity and county pride".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Northern EchoTemplate:'s Chris Lloyd compared Penshaw Monument to the Angel of the North, calling both "beautifully pointless".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Tony Henderson, also of The Journal, wrote that the lack of roof and interior walls "has been to the advantage of the monument as it allows the dramatic play of light among the columns".<ref name="henderson2005"/> In her Monument Guide to England and Wales, Jo Darke called the monument "a great northern landmark";Template:Sfn architectural historians Gwyn Headley and Wim Meulenkamp have described its blackened surface as "a satanic response to the pure white Hellenic ideal".Template:Sfn Nikolaus Pevsner wrote that "the monument looms as an apparition of the Acropolis under hyperborian skies".Template:Sfn In his book The Northumbrians, historian Dan Jackson praised it: "It is a building of great gravitas, and its austere Doric silhouette dominates the landscape for miles around."Template:Sfn
See alsoEdit
- 1844 and 1845 in architecture
- Grade I listed buildings in Tyne and Wear
- List of National Trust properties in England
- List of places in Sunderland
NotesEdit
ReferencesEdit
BibliographyEdit
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External linksEdit
Template:City of Sunderland Template:Listed buildings in the City of Sunderland