Keppels Column

Keppel's Column is a Grade II* monument located in Rotherham, built between 1773 and 1780 by John Carr for Charles Wentworth, the 2nd Marquis of Rockingham. The structure features an ashlar sandstone plinth, base, and abacus, with a dressed wallstone shaft. The massive Tuscan column stands approximately 35 metres tall. There is a doorway on the east side of the plinth that has been concreted up. The shaft has five round-headed windows arranged vertically on three sides and six windows on the side opposite the door, with the lower-most windows walled up. The column exhibits a pronounced entasis that has been realigned towards the top. At the top, there is a large rectangular viewing platform with a damaged iron balustrade. Originally, the design was intended to be a landscape feature consisting of a pedestal topped by an obelisk, but it was ultimately changed to a tall column. The intended height was not achieved, which explains the modification of the entasis. The monument commemorates the honorable acquittal of Admiral Keppel following his court-martial after failing to engage the French off Brest in 1778. It serves as an important landscape feature of the original Wentworth Estate and is a notable local landmark.