Observatory Obelisk

The canny thing about this 90-foot-high obelisk is that it is hard to spot! Once found though you can boast knowing about this Grade II listed piece of science history. Situated near a road aptly called Obelisk Lane, it can be spied through the thicket that surrounds it. It is on the school grounds of the Roman Catholic school, St Leonards, so you can't get right up close without permission.

There is a grand view of it from the top of Durham Cathedral, from Wharton Park and from the A691 side of St Cuthberts.

The amazing Observatory Obelisk was another of William Lloyd Wharton's (1789 to 1867) projects. He was instrumental in many things and there are details on the nearby Wharton Park post. Here is an extract

William Wharton served as Justice of the Peace as his day job, and as High Sheriff of Durham from 1833 to 1836 and I believe it was an unpaid role. As if that wasn't enough, he was also chairman of the Great North Eastern Railway and owned coal mines. In his spare time, he enjoyed sports and championed games and sporting fetes in the park, he set up a rifle club and inaugurated the rowing regatta. He was the curator of Durham Observatory. In 1851 he established the Durham Market Company. Photo of William Wharton in Wharton Park. carved from wood by Tommy Craggs.

Mr Wharton lived at Dryburn Hall. It is said he had the obelisk constructed on his land in 1850 to keep workers gainfully employed during a time of depression. He became the curator at Durham University's Astronomy Observatory in 1839 as he was greatly interested in this subject. The obelisk is 1 mile north of the observatory and was built in sandstone ashlar.

The obelisk was for the stargazers to align their telescope with Polaris (North Star). Why? Telescopes of this era would have been on Equatorial mounts and could track celestial bodies as they moved across the night sky when set up with Earth's rotational axis. To assist detection to those setting up the telescope, I believe It had a light at the top acting as a beacon at night.

The observatory stopped using the telescope for astronomical observation in 1937. So it became an obsolete obelisk.

This column is one and a half times taller than the Angel of the North along the A1, but less than half the height of Durham Cathedral.

Can you see it in the photo below?

The obelisk used to have inscriptions on its walls giving Latitude, Longitude, Magnetic Dip & Variation, and Height above sea level which I surmise would have been most useful to budding scientists.

There are stairs inside and there are a few exploits mentioned on Facebook of youngsters who used to dare to climb out of a 'window' and walk around the narrow platform. Marilyn Alcock wrote a wonderful account:

"Coming home from work one day I was horrified to see my daughter standing on that platform, I daren't call to her in case she lost her balance! She was nearly as horrified when she got down and I was standing there!"

The door was bricked up in 2008 and it has wire fencing around it. The vegetation around it may one day consume it, unless St Leonards has plans to clear the area.