The Bridgewater Monument

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SP 91 SE 5/3

ALDBURY Moneybury Hill RINGSHALL ROAD (West side) The Bridgewater Monument

14.5.52

GV II*

Monumental column. 1831-2 by Sir Jeffry Wyatville for Lord Farnborough as executor to will of 8th Earl of Bridgewater. Built by Philip Nowell of Pimlico 1831-. Pedestal inscribed c.1833 'IN HONOUR OF/FRANCIS, THIRD DUKE OF BRIDGEWATER/"FATHER OF INLAND NAVIGATION"/1832'. Grey micaceous granite, steps and interior of base in yellow freestone, finial a giant copper urn, wrought iron for balustrade round top, handrail and grill at entrance. A splendid neo-Classical monument in the form of a fluted giant Greek Doric column about 40m high surmounted by an urn, the abacus a viewing platform, with a tectonic stepped cubical base and battered high plinth with two offsets and tall vertical projections in the middle of each side. Rectangular entrance up two steps in East projection has plain surround with converging uprights, and faces the long, designed vista eastwards to the family seat, Ashridge House in Little Gaddesden parish q.v. Inscription quoted is inscribed with sunk sans serif lettering.

Contemporary brass plate in entrance passage inscribed 'THIS COLUMN WAS ERECTED CONFORMABLE WITH THE INTENTION OF JOHN WILLIAM EARL OF BRIDGEWATER ACCORDING TO THE TESTAMENTARY DIRECTION OF FRANCIS HENRY EARL OF BRIDGEWATER AND WITH THE APPROBATION OF CHARLOTTE C. ANNE COUNTESS OF BRIDGEWATER IN HONOUR OF FRANCIS THIRD DUKE OF BRIDGEWATER, WHO BY DEVOTING THE ENERGIES OF HIS MIND TO THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE MOST SPLENDID WORKS OF INLAND NAVIGATION OPENED A NEW FIELD TO NATIONAL INDUSTRY AND RENDERED THE MOST IMPORTANT SERVICES TO THE COMMERCIAL INTERESTS OF HIS COUNTRY'.

The monument stands on a spur at the highest point in the parish, 731ft above ordnance datum. Kelly states that it was intended in commemoration of the completion of the Grand Junction Canal. The column is a formal monument to celebrate the canal era, built at its height and before the coming of the railways.

(VCH(1908)143: Kelly(1914)19: Pevsner(1977)65: Derek Linstrum Sir Jeffry Wyatville: Architect to the King Oxford(1972)229).

Listing NGR: SP9701113118