Evelyn Column Felbridge Monument

If you're taking the back road between Alnwick and Rothbury, then you may be surprised at the number of amazing things to visit along such a short stretch of road. There is Edlingham Castle, St John The Baptist Church, an old viaduct, Corby's Letch Waterfall, Corby's Crags and also the seat with the amazing view.

But there is more! In the field near to Lemmington Hall is the Evelyn Column, also known as the Felbridge Monument.

The column is 24m high (around 80ft) with what looks like another little column on top. Next to the column is also what look like 3 gravestones and also a standing stone. As always, there is a story behind it.

A chap called James Evelyn wanted to create something as a tribute to his parents Edward and Julie Evelyn and so he asked the architect Sir John Soane to design something to commemorate them. The column's simple lines are meant to signify 'birth', 'life' and 'eternity'.

It was unveiled in the village of Felbridge on the Sussex-Surrey border in 1785 and also includes an inscription of Addison's Hymn of Gratitude near its base.

But how did it end up in Northumberland?

Sir Stephen Harry Aitchison had recently purchased Lemmington Hall and must have been looking for statues and trinkets to titivate his new place. (A bit like the olden day version of late night, drunken Amazon purchases!).

With the Felbridge estate being sold off in 1927, the column must have caught his eye as he had it shipped up by road, sea and then a little railway right to the door! We're glad he did, as it's lovely to look at.

Now as mentioned before there are also 3 gravestones nearby, but they are actually stones to commemorate the children of Sir Walter Aitchison (born in 1923, 1925 and 1927). Sir Walter was the successor of Sir Stephen.

We're going to be honest and say we totally missed the stones when we visited. We only found out about them when we did research for this write up. Fortunately we managed to see them on our drone photos. We're blaming the grass that was a bit long at the time! You can see them clearly on the below shot.

And that's not all. There is also a standing stone right next to the column too. It has an inscription which reads ”I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills”.

If you squint, you can just make out what I think is Lemington Branch on the hill in the background.

We found this one on a walk on the Shepherd's Walks website, but due to the storm damage we had to take a few detours and ended up hopping a gate into the field, so we're not sure if we came the right way. So check your route before you head out.

Research and content sourced from a few places including North East History Tour.