Sir John Barrow Monument (colloquially known as Hoad) is a tower at the top of the Hoad Hill, near

Ulverston Ulverston is a market town and civil parish in Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it lies a few miles south of the Lake District Lake District National Park, National Park and j ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, England. It commemorates Sir John Barrow (1764-1848), who was born in Ulverston. It was built in 1850 at a cost of £1250, the cost being met mainly by public subscription. Sir John Barrow was a founding member of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

. He travelled to China and South Africa as a diplomat and held the post of Second Secretary to the Admiralty from 1804 until 1845.

Description

left, upThe view from the top of the monument, 2010 The monument is not a lighthouse: it has never had a functional light. However, it was designed to resemble one, and is similar to the Third

Eddystone Lighthouse The Eddystone Lighthouse is a lighthouse on the Eddystone Rocks, south of Rame Head in Cornwall, England. The rocks are submerged below the surface of the sea and are composed of Precambrian gneiss. View at 1:50000 scale The current structu ...

(

Smeaton's Tower Smeaton's Tower is a redundant lighthouse, now a memorial to civil engineer John Smeaton, designer of the third and most notable Eddystone Lighthouse#Smeaton.27s lighthouse, Eddystone Lighthouse. A major step forward in lighthouse design, Smeat ...

). It is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, meaning that it is of more than local interest, and the monument stands as one of the symbols of the northwest of England. It is built of limestone quarried locally at Birkrigg Common. Due to its elevated and exposed position, it is one of the most prominent landmarks in Cumbria. The hollow tower can be ascended via a spiral stone staircase of 112 steps. At the top, eight apertures provide a 360-degree panorama of the

Furness Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria, England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, Historic counties of England, historically an exclave of Lancashire. On 1 April 2023 it became part of the new unitary author ...

Peninsula,

Morecambe Bay Morecambe Bay is an estuary in north-west England, just to the south of the Lake District National Park. It is the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and sand in the United Kingdom, covering a total area of . In 1974, the second largest ga ...

and the southern

Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

. In recent times the formerly open apertures have been glazed. The tower is also occasionally referred to as "the pepper pot". This epithet was famously used by Lord Haw-Haw in one of his propaganda broadcasts during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

when he warned the residents of

that the German Air Force would bomb their pepper pot. Hoad Monument is normally open on Sundays and Bank Holidays between April and October, when a flag is flying outside the monument. The monument itself is owned and maintained by Ulverston Town Council, while Hoad Hill is owned by Ulverston Towns Lands Trust.

Restoration

In 2009/2010 the monument underwent a £1.2 million restoration. The majority of funding came in the form of a £891,000 grant from the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

, with the Friends of the Sir John Barrow Monument collecting grants and donations for the rest. The restoration included a series of structural improvements to make the monument watertight, the most noticeable of these being the addition of a copper roof covering the stone dome, which was itself removed and rebuilt. The official reopening was on Sunday 22 August 2010 and was marked by a gala at Ford Park, barn dance and firework display.

References

* A Story of the Growth of Ulverston, by Dorothy Ashburner. Published 1993 (No ISBN available).

External links

Friends of the Sir John Barrow Monument
{{commons category Ulverston Grade II* listed buildings in Cumbria Monuments and memorials in Cumbria

Description

Restoration

See also

References

External links