Obelisk

Obelisk. Built in 1734 by Mr Borlase, the mason, at the expense of Richard 'Beau' Nash. It is constructed of limestone ashlar with a moulded base and cornice, and features a diminishing shaft rising to a height of 30 feet. The plinth includes a relief coat of arms, the date of erection, and a Latin inscription commemorating the visit and successful cure of the Prince of Orange in 1734. This work cost £8-2-7 1/2d and was intended to promote the use of Bath’s stone for ornamental buildings. The obelisk is part of a larger development at Orange Grove, initiated by City Council minutes of December 1730 which planned new palisades, pillars, sloping ground, and repaired walkways. The area surrounding the obelisk was redesigned after the Second World War as a civic garden named ‘Alkmaar Garden’ to honour Bath’s twinning with the Dutch city of Alkmaar. This twinning, established in March 1945 with the apparent approval of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, involved Bath sending 45,000 articles of clothing to Alkmaar prior to its liberation from Nazi occupation, inspired by the story of Elias Prins, an Alkmaar evacuee who later served as an ARP Warden in Bath. In 1946, Alkmaar gifted 5,000 tulip bulbs to be planted in the garden. The cities formally became twinned later in the 20th century, and in 2017, Alkmaar presented Bath with another 5,000 tulip bulbs.