Hoad Monument

I'll start this post where I ended the last one – on Gummer's How. In this photo, looking over Lakeside and towards the coastal town of Ulverston, I've crudely circled a monument at the top of a distant hill.  If you click the photo you'll hopefully get a slightly better view.

"I wonder what it is?" I mused.  A few days later, as our Lake District holiday drew to a close, I found out.

This is the Sir John Barrow Monument – hardly a snappy title, so locals call it Hoad Monument, for the very good reason that it sits on top of Hoad Hill.

Sir John was born near Ulverston. His father was a tanner, but young John had his sights set on greater things. At the age of 16 he went on a whaling expedition to Greenland and by his twenties he was teaching mathematics at a private school.  He became a founder member of the Royal Geographical Society and held several important government posts, eventually rising to that of Second Secretary to the Admiralty.

The townspeople of Ulverston were clearly proud of their local lad who made the big time, and after his death raised £1250 to build this 100ft tall monument.  Appropriately for a man who served the Admiralty, it looks like a lighthouse, though it has never housed a light.

A Wikipedia article notes the similarity between the Hoad Monument and this one – Smeaton's  Tower, which also doesn't have a light. Here's little me enjoying the sunshine on Plymouth Hoe, back in 2008.