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     Photo Submitted by, and Copyright of :- Richard Cutts of Bolton.

Located some five hundred miles to the South West of Rotherham, off the Brest peninsula of France, near to l'île d'Ouessan, you have an area of the Atlantic that 226 years ago played host to an incident that caused a local Rotherham landmark to be erected. The incident occurred in one of the many 'disagreements' we had with our Gallic cousins on the other side of 'La Manche', but this time it is remembered more for the repercussions in this country afterwards, than the actual dispute itself.

Admiral Augustus Viscount Keppel was a close friend and political ally of the Marquis of Rockingham, who was the leader of the Whig political party in late 18th century England. Unfortunately for Keppel both his second in command Hugh Palliser, and also Lord Sandwich, the First Lord of the Admiralty, did not share the same political affiliations.
(Yes it was the same Lord Sandwich, who liked salted beef between two slices of bread)

Matters came to an inevitable conclusion on the 27th July 1778 at the Battle of Ushant, when due to possibly a misunderstanding, no second attack was made following an indecisive first attack earlier that day. Keppel expressed privately that he had lacked support from Palliser's ship, and vice-admiral Palliser, on hearing this, managed to get Lord Sandwich, as First Lord of the Admiralty, to Court Marshall Keppel for "misconduct and neglect of duty".
The penalty on being found guilty was not a spell of 'community service' but death by hanging, which was not always the quickest and least painless way to leave the mortal plane in the late 18th century.

Not unsurprisingly Keppel was acquitted, so Rockingham decided to erect this column in celebration of the fact. It is said though that he already had plans to mark the southern extremity of his estate with the erection of a folly, and this historical event was the catalyst that he needed.
Rockingham decided to employ local architect John Carr to come up with the design.
Two obstacles, one more important than the other, stood in the path of Rockingham ever seeing his folly completed however. Finance problems and then unfortunatelly his own death. This meant the column never reached its planned height of 186 foot, nor did the statue of Keppel that was planned for the top ever materialize. The column was in fact finished, in its new shorter form, by his nephew who was also responsible for the building of the Rockingham Mausoleum.

The column now stands 136 feet tall, with a 16 foot square [approx] viewing platform at the top. Although the column looks to be built of stone, it has in fact a central brick core around which a spiral staircase of 217 steps wind their way to the top. The outer skin of dressed stone then completing the structure.
To rest your weary legs, and to come as a relief no doubt from the claustrophobic and poorly lit stairwell - lit by small slit windows - there is a small chamber with seats at the widest point, which is about one third the way up.
The whole affair rests on a huge seven foot tall pedestal base, where in the eastern face is found the entrance doorway. The unusual shape comes about because of the design of an entasis into the column. This is a measured amount of convexity introduced into the profile of the column, which is meant to compensate for the illusion of concavity that can sometimes be seen by the eye when looking at tall straight columns. The amount of entasis is critical and depends on the finished height of the column. In this instance the amount of entasis used was based on the assumption that the column would be taller than it actually was when finished, so the effect on the column looks out of place.

A legacy of the area's past industry is subsidence from old mine workings, and this one like other follies in the area has become a casualty of it. The owners - Rotherham Borough Council - have had 'temporary' work done to stabilize the column, consisting of a steel corset around the widest area, and the top platform having steel hawsers wrapped around it under great tension. This is in an effort to hold the top platform together against its central brick core.
Money from a lottery grant has now been set aside for the repair, whether repair is viable remains to be seen though.

Access:
Easily reached from a public footpath that leaves Admiral's Crest, which is just off the A629 main road.


Nearest Main Town: Rotherham 3 miles

Co-Ords: 438940 394730 / SK 389947   

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