The Penshaw Monument is a 70 ft high folly built on Penshaw Hill in 1844 in honour John Lambton (1792–1840), 1st Earl of Durham and the first Governor of the Province of Canada.
Although often called 'The Penshaw Monument' the structures correct title is 'The Earl of Durham's Monument' and it is considered to be Wearside's most beloved landmark. The structure is a replica of the Temple of Theseus in Athens and is 66ft high and 98 ft long.
In September 1939, John Lambton, the 5th Earl of Durham, gave the Penshaw Monument to the National Trust.
The monument features on the badge of Sunderlabnd Football Club.
On Easter Monday 1926 a 15-year-old boy, Temperley Arthur Scott, fell to his death from the top of Penshaw Monument. The boy was with three friends and 20 other people when the accident happened. They had reached the roof via the spiral staircase in one of the pillars. Witnesses said that the boys went round the roof walkway twice before deciding to make a third circuit. However Scott fell trying to avoid the other visitors by passing around an open end where there was no protecting wall. Afterwards the spiral staircase to the roof was closed and remained so until a special opening on 29 August 2011,
In 1926 on Easter Monday, a 15 year old boy named Temperley Arthur Scott fell to his death from the top of the Penshaw Monument after reaching the roof via the spiral staircase in one of the pillars. Due to this, the staircase was closed until its reopening in 2011, when more than 2,000 people turned up to climb the staircase and witness the spectacular views as far afield as Durham Cathedral and the North Pennines.
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