Derwentwater Monument

If your head's on the way to Hartside, you'd be forgiven for having driven in a whizz past this!

Rooted in a bend of the road and blending in with the underscrub sits the Derwentwater Monument, a Celtic cross carved from sandstone in a Victorian mock Gothic style. This was hat tip from the curiously named Cadwallender Bates who owned Langley Castle from 1882 until his death in 1902, to the Earls of Derwentwater, Charles and James.

We've driven past this many times over the years but usually just fly by and wonder on the way home what it is, but this time we managed to drive by like snails and got the kids to quickly grab a shot from the car.

There's always new stuff to unearth and this medium sized monument was no exception.

Cadwallender Bates was a famous antiquarian and local historian with a fascination for the Fabulous North! From 1880 to around 1902 he wrote on average at least a book a year about all things Northumbrian from shorthorn cows to Flodden Field, from Saints to Distance Slabs on The Antonine Wall. He was awash with a wealth of Northumbrian knowledge. He'd have followed the Fabulous North had it been a thing then!

In the late 1800s he bought Langley Castle as a restoration project, which almost two centuries before had been home to James Radcliffe, Earl of Derwentwater and Viscount Langley. The Earl opposed the 1705 Glorious Revolution which unseated the Stuart dynasty.

A Roman milestone sits on Waterfalls Hill near Birtley off the A68. This is said to be the location that The Earl of Derwentwater and his followers met General Thomas Forster and his troops, at the start of the Jacobite rising in October 1715. Marching through Rothbury they travelled to Warkworth proclaiming James III as King in the marketplace and then dining out on pie and chips in The Mason's Arms, everyone's meal of choice after a rebellion, eh?

Travelling back over the moors to Hexham, The Earl and his men arrived in the Toon where they were anticipating the squirearchy to fully support the Jacobites. However, the city gates were thrown shut and bolted as Newcastle declared its allegiance to King George. Some reference this as the origin of the term Geordies, which reflects the people of Newcastle being 'all for George'.

For his part as a leader in the Jacobean Rebellion of 1715 The Earl of Derwentwater was captured in Lancashire and subsequently beheaded at The Tower of London. On the scaffold, he expressed regret at having pleaded guilty and declared his devotion to his Roman Catholic religion and to James III.

In consulting my 'Highways & Byways in Northumbria' by P. Anderson Graham, page 270 states:

'The last Earl of Derwentwater was executed on February 24th 1716 on Tower Hill. That night over Dilston's melancholy tower, the red fingers of the Aurora Borealis shot across the sky, and the watching peasantry saw in its portent of the passing of their beloved lord. Since then, they have called them, not the Northern, but Lord Derwentwater's lights.”

Legend also has it that the Devil's Water that flows past his home at Dilston Hall ran red every year on the date of his execution.

Cadwallender Bates was most taken with this tale and with the fact that in 1705, the Earls of Derwentwater owned the Langley Estates, so to commemorate their place in history he erected this stone cross, situated between Langley Castle and Haydon Bridge. It reads:

'To the memory of James and Charles, Viscounts Langley, Earls of Derwentwater, beheaded on Tower Hill, London 24th February 1716, and 8th December 1746 for Loyalty to their Lawful Sovereign.'

The monument at Langley is one of only two monuments to the Earls of Derwentwater in England. The other one is the Derwentwater Obelisk in Acton Park, near London, which commemorates James and, as far as is known, it is the only English memorial that pays direct tribute to sacrifice for the Jacobite Cause.

You can catch more of the Northeast's industrial heritage close by at Crindledykes Lime Kiln and at Stublick Chimney.