Penshaw Monument

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About Penshaw Monument

Penshaw Monument is a folly built in 1844 on Penshaw Hill (locally pronounced /ˈpɛnʃə/), in Tyne and Wear, North East England, between the areas of Washington and Houghton-le-Spring in the city of Sunderland. It is dedicated to John George Lambton, first Earl of Durham and the first Governor of the Province of Canada.

The Monument stands 136 metres above sea level. Built as a half-sized replica of the renowned Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, the monument dominates the local landscape. Penshaw Monument was designed by John and Benjamin Green and built by Thomas Pratt of Sunderland, based on the Doric order. The Monument is the best preserved model of a Doric Hexastyle temple in Britain. The Marquess of Londonderry presented Penshaw Hill as a suitable site.

It is 100 feet (30 metres) long, 53 feet (16 metres) wide and 70 feet (20 metres) high. The columns are each 6 feet and 6 inches (2 metres) in diameter.

Resting on the columns is the entablature which itself can be split into three main parts. The architrave, 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.

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.