Penshaw Monument

Penshaw Monument (/ˈpɛnʃə/), officially The Earl of Durham's Monument, is a folly built in 1844 on Penshaw Hill between the districts of Washington and Houghton-le-Spring, within the City of Sunderland, North East England. It is dedicated to John Lambton (1792–1840), 1st Earl of Durham and the first Governor of the Province of Canada.

Location

The 136-metre (446 ft) hill on which the monument stands was presented by Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. The monument dominates the local landscape as a half-sized replica of the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens. It is floodlit at night.

Toponymy

Although often called "Penshaw Monument", the correct title of the structure is The Earl of Durham's Monument.

The monument stands on Penshaw Hill, the name of which is derived from a mixture of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon words. Pen is a Brythonic or Cumbric word for hill, as in the name Penrith; shaw is derived from sceaga meaning "wooded area"; and finally the Old/Middle/Modern English word "hill". The name thus means "wooded-hill hill".

Penshaw

Coordinates: 54°52′33″N 1°29′05″W / 54.875842°N 1.484793°W / 54.875842; -1.484793

The village of Penshaw local /ˈpɛnʃə/, formerly known as Painshaw or Pensher, is an area of the metropolitan district of the City of Sunderland, in Tyne and Wear, England. Historically in County Durham, it derives its name from the Cumbric Pen, meaning hill or ridge, and the Saxon Shaw, a wood or thicket; thus Penshaw is the wooded hill.

Penshaw is well-known locally for Penshaw Monument, a prominent landmark built in 1844 atop Penshaw Hill, which is a half-scale replica of the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens. Owing to its proximity to Durham City, the area was allocated a Durham postcode, DH4, which forms part of the Houghton-le-Spring post town. It lies about three miles north of Houghton-le-Spring, just over the River Wear from Washington. It borders Herrington Country Park and is surrounded by a series of villages: Herrington, Shiney Row, Biddick, Coxgreen and Offerton.