A History Of Wentworth's Follies - Part Three - Keppel's Column

▶️ Watch on 3Speak

A short video of the third installment of my History Of Wentworth's follies series. This one is for Keppel's Column,
which was built between 1773-1781 standing at 115 feet, it's the tallest of the four monuments around the Wentworth estate.

This was the first video I shot with the DJI Mini 4 Pro, having just upgraded from the Mini 3 Pro, which is a fantastic drone in it's own right. It's just a shame that the light wasn't very good on the day of the shoot, I may go back and reshoot this video, although we are in the middle of Storm Babet, so there's gonna be no drone flying for the forseeable future.

Designed by John Carr of York for Charles Watson-Wentworth & built between 1773 – 1781, the 115 foot grade two listed building is situated in Scholes Coppice, an area of ancient woodland.
The column is a monument to Admiral Keppel in commemoration of his acquittal at a court martial in 1779 after the battle of Ushant.
The column has recently been restored with significant repairs to the structure, repairs to 4 landing areas and including the installation of 217 steel treads and not forgetting new railings on the roof platform.
In 1778 the design of the column changed from an obelisk mounted on a pedestal to a tall column, then in 1780 the monument was unveiled to the public a became known as Keppel’s Column.
The first evidence of restoration work was carried out at the column back in the 1800’s.
In 1910 the Column was struck by lightning and scaffolding was erected around the top to carry out repairs.
Idiots vandalised the column in 1970 which caused the column to be closed to the public, although it wasn’t until 1986 when it became a Grade II listed building.
In 2021 restoration work started at a total cost of £480,902
I remember visiting here as a kid back in the early 80’s, before the housing estate was built around it.

Thanks for reading my post.

All the best :-)

▶️ 3Speak