Needle's Eye
Secrets of the Pyramid
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The date of its construction is usually given as between 1730 and 1782. Unsurprisingly, this period encompasses the entire lifetime of its supposed builder.
The Needle's Eye has settled by several inches on its eastern side due to mining subsidence and this makes it difficult to obtain accurate measurements. It is about 38 feet in height to the top of the urn, and has a square base measuring perhaps just short of 20 feet on each side. The width of the passageway from wall to wall is 8 feet 9 inches. Stones at each corner would make the maximum wheelbase of any carriage that could get through a couple of feet less. The height of the interior walls to the start of the arch, at just over 11 feet, is equal to the width of the base minus the width of the passageway. The highest point of the arch is 16 feet 4inches and this is exactly half the distance from the ground to the base of the urn. The stone benches set into the inner walls are about 18 inches high.
Photographs of the Needle's Eye
1. In silhouette from the footpath to the north.
2. The eastern face showing evidence of an execution.
3. Detail of the musket ball impact holes.
4. View of the 'Eye' showing the interior benches.
5. Detail of weathered stone on the inside western wall.
6. Afternoon view from the south showing settlement.
7. The funerary urn atop the 'unfinished pyramid'.
What follows can be no more than speculative musing on my part; however, it is not unreasonable.
The Legend Rationalised
The Needle's Eye stands on the old coach road north to Brampton as it passes over the ridge between Wentworth on the southern side, and Rainborough Park on the northern side. The passageway is probably wide enough to admit some of the cramped, narrow coaches used at the time, if driven carefully, but the more grand coaches and carts may have had to divert around it. It is unlikely that traffic along the coach road was entirely restricted to passing through the 'Eye'.
The expression "drive a coach and horses through it" is today used metaphorically to indicate that an argument, a conjecture, or a plan, is weak, that it has large holes in it. I don't doubt that it was used similarly in the 18th century and that Rockingham, a politician of the highest calibre, could have employed it often enough for the expression to have become associated with him. Nor do I find it difficult to believe that, as a young man, he may well have taken a spirited dash at the passageway in a coach and pair - if the pyramid already existed. Would he, however, have had this pyramid built in this location for the supposed wager?
Much argument has raged over what is meant by "the eye of a needle" in the saying attributed to Jesus in Matthew 19:24, Mark 10:25, and Luke 18:25. One school of thought is that it refers to the postern gate of cities in the Near East, large enough to admit a man arriving after curfew but too small to admit his laden camel. If this meaning was at the root of the wager, then Rockingham may well have declared that he could "drive a coach and horses" though the explanation and had a fair copy built of such a postern gate, imported a camel and ridden it through the passageway. Indeed, he might even have wagered that not only would a camel pass easily through such a postern gate but that it was even possible to get a particular design of coach through. The one large hole in this theory - and large enough to drive a coach and horses through - is that the wager is no more than legend; there seems to be no record of the construction.
The Unfinished Pyramid and the Number Seven
Certain features of the Needle's Eye allow for other explanations. The pyramid is actually unfinished, although the fact is disguised by the urn with which it is capped. True pyramids, and obelisks, are capped with a single stone, in shape a miniature pyramid, called the pyramidion. Deliberately incomplete structures are sometimes used in memorial architecture to indicate incompletion in the work of the deceased; and an urn is a common funerary ornament. Then again, unfinished pyramids are often associated with Freemasonry where they are usually topped by the light emitting "All Seeing Eye of Providence". Viewed from the north in silhouette, the urn appears to take the shape of a tongue of fire. At this point I must note that Rockingham is remembered as a supporter of American Independence and that Freemasonry and Masonic symbolism was the driving force behind the creation of the U.S.A. and its national symbols.
When measuring what parts I could of the pyramid, I was struck by the odd and apparently unreasonable dimensions. Why was the height of the interior walls 133 inches and not 132 inches (11 feet)? Why was the passageway built to a width of 105 inches (8 feet 9 inches) and not 108 inches (9 feet)? The only common factor that I could see was that both numbers were multiples of 7. The full height, which I had assumed was intended to be 38 feet (456 inches) might be yet another multiple of 7 since 455 inches is 65 times 7. Could there be others?
By using measurements taken directly from the Needle's Eye as base lengths and working from several digital photographs, I found that most of the dimensions might be multiples of 7 inches. I say only might be because it is next to impossible to obtain any real degree of accuracy using this method to calculate the dimensions of an object which slopes away from the camera, may have been built inaccurately, has settled lopsidedly due to subsidence, and has been subject to well over two hundred years of weathering. Having said that, the number of dimensions not too far off a multiple of 7 inches seems sufficient to make a prima facie claim that this was an important feature of the design, either because the number 7 held some significance to the architect or because the Needle's Eye is scaled up seven times from an original architects model or plan constructed to exact inches.
| Width of Urn | 35 inches | 5 x 7 |
| Height of Urn | 63 inches | 9 x 7 |
| Height to top of Urn | 455 inches | 65 x 7 |
| Height to base of Urn | 392 inches | 56 x 7 |
| Height to (missing) apex of pyramid | 427 inches | 61 x 7 |
| Height to highest point of arch | 196 inches | 28 x 7 |
| Height to base of arch | 133 inches | 19 x 7 |
| Width of passage | 105 inches | 15 x 7 |
| Width of base | 238 inches | 34 x 7 |
Age and Purpose
The age of the structure is uncertain. The eastern face exhibits what almost certainly is a scattering of musket ball impact holes in a pattern which indicates the execution of two persons by firing squad. If this is the case, then, barring the illegal execution of revolting Rotherham peasants, it would suggest that the pyramid may have existed at the time of the Jacobite march to Derby, or even at the time of Cromwell and the Civil War in the mid 17th century.
There is one other feature of the structure which I have not yet touched upon and which may indicate its original purpose: this is the inclusion of narrow stone benches along the inside walls of the passageway. Standing as it does on the boundary ridge between Wentworth and Rainborough, it is possible that the structure was built beside the old road to act in much the same manner as the lychgate - the covered churchyard gateway, often with side benches, where the bier stands while prayers are said. In past ages it was not uncommon for the servant and peasant classes to find employment and live their lives on neighbouring estates but be returned to their home parish for burial. The Needle's Eye may well have been charitably built to provided shelter in this exposed position to such a funeral procession as it paused at the boundary to say prayers.
Or it may be just a rich man's Folly.
Further information about the Needle's Eye and the beautiful village of Wentworth is available at Wentworth Village: The Needle's Eye
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Ink Amera |
(C) David 6/9/2007 |
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