3689 x 5534 px | 31,2 x 46,9 cm | 12,3 x 18,4 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
17 febbraio 2012
Ubicazione:
Penshaw Hill between Washington and Houghton-le-Spring
Altre informazioni:
Penshaw Monument , officially The Earl of Durham's Monument, is a folly built in 1844 on Penshaw Hill between the districts of Washington and Houghton-le-Spring, within the City of Sunderland, North East England. It is dedicated to John George Lambton, first Earl of Durham and the first Governor of the Province of Canada. The 136-metre (446 ft) 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. Although often called "Penshaw Monument", the correct title of the structure is The Earl of Durham's Monument. The monument stands on Penshaw Hill, which is something of a toponymic peculiarity. Essentially the name is derived from a mixture of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon (or Old English) words. Pen is a Brythonic or Cumbric word for hill, as in the name Penrith; shaw is derived from sceaga meaning "wooded area"; and finally the Old/Middle/Modern English word "hill". Thus when fully translated, the name means "wooded-hill hill". The foundation stone was laid by Thomas Dundas, 2nd Earl of Zetland (the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England) on 28 August 1844. This was four years after the death of John George Lambton. On Easter Monday, 1926 a 15-year-old boy, Temperley Arthur Scott, fell to his death from the top of Penshaw Monument. The boy was with three friends and 20 other people when the accident happened. They had got to the roof through the spiral staircase situated within one of the pillars. Witnesses said that the boys went round the roof walkway twice before deciding to make a third circuit. However, Scott fell trying to avoid the other visitors by passing around an open end where there was no protecting wall. Afterwards the spiral staircase to the roof was closed and remained so until a special opening on 29th August 2011,
