Qualla: Penshaw Monument

Penshaw Monument: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Walkerma, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 28 August 1844 the Earl of Zetland laid a foundation stone in a Masonic ceremony attended by tens of thousands of people. They had come to watch the construction of a half-size Greek temple on a hill outside Sunderland. The temple was supposed to commemorate John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, the man who wrote the Durham Report on the governance of British North America and effectively invented the constitutional framework for Canadian self-government. Today, almost no one who passes the monument can tell you who Lambton was. The temple has become its own meaning.

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Image: Walkerma | CC BY-SA 3.0

Penshaw Monument: A Temple to a Forgotten Earl

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Richard Webb, CC BY-SA 2.0. John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, died in 1840 at the age of forty-seven. He had served as Governor-General of British North America and produced a report on the future governance of the American territories that became one of the founding documents of Canadian responsible govern...

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Image: Richard Webb | CC BY-SA 2.0

Penshaw Monument: The Spiral Staircase

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit mattbuck (category), CC BY-SA 4.0. Hidden in the second column from the east on the south-facing side runs a 74-step spiral staircase leading up to a parapeted walkway along the top of the entablature. From up there the view runs to the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland on a clear day, and on the right kind of light...

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Image: mattbuck (category) | CC BY-SA 4.0

Penshaw Monument: The Lambton Worm and the Football Crest

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Darren Wilkinson from Chester-le-Street, England, CC BY-SA 2.0. Penshaw Hill, the 136-metre knoll the monument stands on, has older stories than the temple it carries. There may have been an Iron Age hillfort up here; partial ramparts have been identified. In March 1644 a Scottish Covenanter army camped on the hill after a failed attack on Ne...

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Image: Darren Wilkinson from Chester-le-Street, England | CC BY-SA 2.0

Penshaw Monument: Visible from Fifty Miles

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Liam Swinney from Sunderland, United Kingdon, CC BY 2.0. Tradition says that on a clear day Penshaw Monument can be seen from 50 miles away, from the A1 motorway and from much of the surrounding country. About 60,000 people visit the site each year, drawn by the views, the walking, or the photography. The Penshaw Bowl, an Easter egg ro...

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Image: Liam Swinney from Sunderland, United Kingdon | CC BY 2.0