Rockingham Mausoleum
The Western Door
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It stands in secluded private woodland and is open to the public only from 2 o'clock to 5 o'clock on Sunday afternoons between Spring and August Bank Holidays. A small charge is levied. Unlike the other Wentworth follies, it may not be viewed, even from the outside, except at these times or with special permission from:
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Fitzwilliam Wentworth Amenity Trust, Clayfield Lane, Wentworth Rotherham, South Yorkshire S62 7TD |
The topmost section of the Mausoleum is designed in the style of a Roman temple and consists of a cupola supported by twelve columns. Large urns stand at the four corners.
The middle section consists of four open arches covering the sarcophagus open to the elements. The sarcophagus itself is only decorative and the remains of the Marquis are interred in the Strafforde family vault in York Minster. The top of this section bears the carved inscription:
| South side: | THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED BY |
| East side: | WILLIAM, EARL FITZWILLIAM, 1788 |
| North side: | TO THE MEMORY OF |
| West side: | CHARLES, MARQUIS OF ROCKINGHAM |
The lowest section is externally square with a door on the west side and windows on the other three sides. The inside is a circular room with a domed ceiling, supported by columns and containing four niches in which are displayed busts of eight of the Marquis's friends, including Admiral Keppel for whom Rockingham built Keppel's Column. Because of the risk that the busts might be damaged by mining subsidence, they were removed for safekeeping but have since been returned. Not removed and still inside is the life sized statue of the Marquis, exquisitely carved in white marble by the most famous British sculptor of the time, Joseph Nollekens, at a cost of £3000 - then a very considerable amount of money.
Sewing up the Legends
Although Nollekens actually lived to the ripe old age of 85, a strange legend grew up that he committed suicide when it was pointed out to him that he had omitted some of the stitching on the left foot of the Marquis's statue. Despite a more prosaic probable cause of the legend, its growth must certainly have been assisted by the the attention to detail for which Nollekens' statue is also quite rightly famed, that practically every stitch of the Marquis's robes is painstakingly shown. Which brings us right back to the legend of the Needle's Eye and the SEW acronym of the doors, useful as a mnemonic to the dating of the follies in 1748, 1778 and 1788.
Photographs of The Rockingham Mausoleum
1. The south-western obelisk seen on the approach.
2. The Mausoleum and north-western obelisk.
3. The Mausoleum viewed from the west.
4. The sarcophagus beneath the arch.
5. Statue of Rockingham viewed through the door.
6. The statue seen through the northern window.
John-Paul Draycott has very kindly supplied me with some very good interior photographs of the statue room taken on 19/6/2005.
a. The ceiling of the Statue room.
b. Detail of ceiling panel.
c. Evidence of minor structural damage.
d. Busts of Admiral Keppel and Charles James Fox.
e. Busts of John Lee and Lord John Cavendish.
f. Busts of the Duke of Portland and Frederick Montagu.
g. Busts of Sir George Savile and Edmund Burke.
h. The plinth, side 1 (front).
i. The plinth, side 2 (left).
j. The plinth, side 3 (rear).
k. The plinth, side 4 (right).
l. The statue from the front.
m. The statue from the rear.
n. Detail of left foot.
Further information about the Rockingham Mausoleum and the beautiful village of Wentworth is available at Wentworth Village: The Rockingham Mausoleum
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Ink Amera |
(C) David 12/4/2009 |
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