Penshaw Monument


Penshaw Monument, or The Earl of Durham's Monument, is a monument in the style of a Doric temple on Penshaw Hill, between the towns of Washington and Houghton-le-Spring in the City of Sunderland, North East England. Built in 1844, it is dedicated to John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham and the first Governor of the Province of Canada, affectionately known as Radical Jack.
Penshaw Monument was built as a memorial to John Lambton's work on the Durham report which was commissioned by Lord Melbourne in 1838 to seek direction on how best the British Empire should manage its colonies around the globe. The report recommended nearly complete self governance for advanced colonies and became one of the most important documents in the whole of the British Empire, formulating a new relationship between London and the colonies.

Location

The hill on which the monument stands was presented by Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. The monument dominates the local landscape as a half-sized replica of the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens. It is floodlit at night.

Toponymy

Although often called "the Penshaw Monument", the correct title of the structure is The Earl of Durham's Monument.
The monument stands on Penshaw Hill, the name of which is derived from a mixture of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon words. ' is a Brythonic or Cumbric word for hill, as in the name Penrith; is derived from ' meaning "wooded area"; and finally the Old/Middle/Modern English word "hill". The name thus means "wooded-hill hill".

Construction

The Doric tetrastyle monument is long, wide and high. The columns are each in diameter. It was designed by John and Benjamin Green and built by Thomas Pratt of Sunderland, based on the Doric order.
Resting on the columns is the entablature which itself can be split into three main parts. The architrave is the main spanning beam across the tops of the pillars. Above the architrave is the frieze, the central patterned section. Then the cornice is the upper part which projects outwards. Finally, the pediments are the triangular facings at each end of the Monument. One of the pillars contains a spiral staircase to a walkway around the top of the monument.
The Monument is made of gritstone from the Marquess of Londonderry's quarries on the east coast. Steel pins and brackets were used to hold the stone blocks in place.

History

The foundation stone was laid by Thomas Dundas, 2nd Earl of Zetland on 28 August 1844, four years after the death of John Lambton..
On 5 April 1926 a 15-year-old boy from Fatfield, Temperley Arthur Scott, fell to his death from the top of the Penshaw Monument. The boy was with three friends and 20 other people when the accident happened. They had reached the roof via the spiral staircase in one of the pillars. Afterwards the spiral staircase to the roof was closed and remained so until 2011, when the public were again granted access to the spiral staircase and views from the top of the monument.
In September 1939 John Lambton, 5th Earl of Durham gave the Penshaw Monument to the National Trust.
Owing to settlement as a result of mining beneath the hill, the Penshaw Monument was underpinned in 1978. The next year the entire western end was dismantled block by block in order that damaged lintels could be replaced by new reinforced concrete ones.
In 1983, local punk rock band Toy Dolls filmed the music video for their single "Dig That Groove Baby", taken from the album of the same name, inside the monument.
In July 2014, extensive areas of the monument were daubed with red spray paint. The graffiti included text and symbols believed to be related to the 2005 political film V for Vendetta. The National Trust hired specialist contractors to remove this graffiti at considerable cost.
The Penshaw Monument features on the club badge of Sunderland A.F.C.

Plaque

The monument was acquired by the National Trust as a gift from the 5th Earl of Durham in 1939 and a plaque was placed on its front to recognise this.
The plaque reads:


THIS STONE WAS LAID BY

THOMAS, EARL OF ZETLAND

GRAND MASTER OF THE FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS OF ENGLAND

ASSISTED BY

THE BRETHREN OF THE PROVINCES OF DURHAM AND NORTHUMBERLAND

ON THE 28TH AUGUST 1844

BEING THE FOUNDATION STONE OF A MEMORIAL TO BE ERECTED

TO THE MEMORY OF

JOHN GEORGE EARL OF DURHAM

WHO

AFTER REPRESENTING THE COUNTY OF DURHAM IN PARLIAMENT

FOR FIFTEEN YEARS

WAS RAISED TO THE PEERAGE

AND SUBSEQUENTLY HELD THE OFFICES OF

LORD PRIVY SEAL, AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINARY AND

MINISTER AT THE COURT OF ST. PETERSBURG AND

GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA.

HE DIED ON THE 28TH OF JULY 1840 IN THE 49TH YEAR OF HIS AGE

THE MONUMENT WILL BE ERECTED

BY THE PRIVATE SUBSCRIPTIONS OF HIS FELLOW COUNTRYMEN

ADMIRERS OF HIS DISTINGUISHED TALENTS AND

EXEMPLARY PRIVATE VIRTUES.




DONATED TO THE NATIONAL TRUST ON 1ST SEPTEMBER 1939