Obelisk to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (Sun Monument) is a Grade II* listed building in the Barnsley local planning authority area, England. First listed on 18 March 1968. A Georgian Monument.
Obelisk to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (Sun Monument)
- WRENN ID
- steep-gravel-violet
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Barnsley
- Constituency
- Penistone and Stocksbridge MP: Dr Marie Tidball (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 18 March 1968
- Type
- Monument
- Period
- Georgian
- OS grid reference
- SE 317 029
- Coordinates
- 53.52262, -1.52318
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The obelisk dedicated to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was built in the 1730s to 1740s, likely by William Wentworth, Second Earl of Strafford, and was restored in 2008. It is made of sandstone ashlar.
The obelisk is positioned in front of a battlemented wall, marking the end of the views along Broad Avenue and Lady Augusta’s Walk to the east. It features a deep, square plinth and a square die with a moulded base and cornice, from which the obelisk rises to a pyramidal cap. On the front face of the die, there are two panels. The upper panel is a square, marble piece with a weathered inscription that has become largely unreadable. Below it, there is a 20th-century ashlar slab that contains a more legible inscription, which reads:
“TO THE MEMORY OF THE / RT HON LADY MARY / WORTLEY MONTAGU / WHO IN THE YEAR 1720 / INTRODUCED INOCULATION / OF THE SMALLPOX / INTO ENGLAND FROM TURKEY”
The pyramidal cap is topped with a bronze ball finial, added in 2008.
Local climate
Obelisk to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (Sun Monument) receives an average of 880 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 65% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 56% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 40 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 77% of listed buildings. Of these, 22 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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