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Savernake Forest is a large and ancient woodland in the north of the county of Wiltshire.
Many events have occurred there, including it is said, King Henry VIII meeting Jane the daughter of Sir John Seymour, who was the forest's steward at the time.


Reference to a large scale ordnance map will show regular avenues that have been cleared in the trees, all emanating from a central point, like the spokes of a wheel radiating out from its hub.
At this central hub is the Ailesbury Column. This beautiful 100 foot tall Ionic column, sitting on a large plinth with the regulatory urn on top, has sat on this spot for 220 years of its 240 year existence.










Second Hand
The column was in fact second hand when it was erected. Its original home for the previous twenty years, was in Hammersmith London, at the home of George Bubb Dodington, or Baron Melcombe as he later became.
Dodington, a politician of some standing, died in 1762 shortly after he erected the column in memory of his late wife.


Earl of Ailesbury
Thomas Bruce, the Earl of Ailesbury was the man responsible for the column`s re-erection in 1781 in its present location. The area having just been landscaped by Capability Brown, who created an avenue through the trees down to Tottenham House the ancestral home, located to the south of the forest.
Mr Brown, commenting on this avenue, is accredited with saying that he "felt that a long vista should not just peter out into the distance, but should end in a proper object, to arrest the eye".
As the estate had actually been left to the Earl by his uncle, it was decided therefore to erect a column to commemorate that fact.

A plaque testifies to this:-
" This Column was erected by Thomas Bruce, Earl of Ailesbury
as a testimony of gratitude to his ever honoured uncle
Charles, Earl of Ailesbury and Elgin, who left to him these estates,
and procured for him the Barony of Tottenham,
and of loyalty to his most gracious sovereign George the Third,
who unsolicited conferred upon him the honour of an earldom,
but above all of piety to God, first, highest, best,
whose blessing consecrateth every gift, and fixeth its true value.
MDCCLXXX1 "

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The other side of the column has another plaque with the following inscription:-

" In commemoration of a single instance
of Heaven's protecting providence
over these kingdoms in the year 1789,
by restoring to perfect health from a long and afflicting disorder **
their excellent and beloved sovereign
George the Third. "



         Click for a close up of the beautiful copper urn.
 Is that a small plaque at the top or a lighter area of stonework ? All is revealed on the following page  



Visiting:-
The forest is open for public access.
See the Savernake Estate web site.   

** Footnote:- King George's illness   The illness that the monarch King George 111 had, which caused people to believe him to be mad, is now thought to have been Porphyria, an inherited disorder involving abnormalities in the production of heme pigments, the base material responsible for hemoglobin, the red blood cell pigment.

Co-Ords: 422930 164800 / SU 229648  

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