Iron Mad Wilkinson Obelisk - Lindale, Cumbria UK
Posted by: 
martlakes
N 54° 12.925 W 002° 53.599
30U E 506956 N 6007495
John 'Iron Mad' Wilkinson was an industrialist and innovator whose methods produced iron in abundance. He found numerous new applications for iron and was buried in an iron coffin under a mighty iron obelisk. Not where it now stands though.
Waymark Code: WM3C90
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/14/2008
Views: 51
Wilkinson was born in 1728 at Clifton, near Penrith, and worked in the South Lakes with his father before establishing furnaces in Shropshire, the Midlands and North Wales. He also owned Castlehead near Lindale. His eventful life included, at the age of 72 fathering three children with his mistress. He died at his home in Bradley on 14th July 1808 but even his death was not simple.
In accordance with John's detailed written instructions, his body was encased not in an iron coffin but in leaden and wooden sheaths to make a portable funerary parcel. It travelled by canal and road to Morecambe Bay, and was taken over the sands in a wooden cart. Even without the heavy iron coffin, the wheels of the cart sank and the carriers frantically dug them out, racing a swiftly incoming tide. On the move again, they nearly lost themselves and John's body in the quicksands near to Holme Island, and reached the firm shore with great difficulty.
At Castlehead, an iron coffin was ready to receive the corpse, but the coffin was too small to take both the body and its leaden and wooden shrouds. Hastily, a message was sent to Bradley ironworks to construct a larger coffin and this was shipped, together with a 20-ton iron memorial obelisk and a massive iron plinth upon which to place it, by sloop to the port of Ulverston in Cumbria. These heavy iron objects were taken by carts to Castlehead with great difficulty over the rough, potholed coastal road.
John's sheathed remains were placed within the iron coffin and the lid closed with iron bolts, but still he was not laid to rest. The gravediggers had excavated a grave part way up the crag just south of the mansion, but they soon struck bedrock and, when installed, the coffin was only covered by a few inches of soil. After a short period, the huge coffin was dug up, a deeper grave blasted out of the rock with explosives, and the coffin reinterred with the massive plinth and memorial obelisk over the grave. A 19th century print shows the obelisk on the hillside near to the mansion.
John's body did not lay at rest for long. His will included a 20-year trust, and when this expired in 1828 plans were made to sell the Castlehead Estate. The vendors thought that his tomb, which was visible from the mansion windows, would deter prospective buyers, so the memorial obelisk was thrown into the shrubbery where it lay and rusted until 1863. At dead of night, workmen dug up his iron coffin and moved it to Lindale-in-Cartmel Church where it was buried in consecrated ground. The historian A.H. Palmer said in 1899 that John was buried within the church beneath Castlehead's private pew, but nobody knows precisely where his remains lie.
In 1863, a new owner of Castlehead called Earnest Mucklow retrieved the obelisk from the shrubbery and had it transported to Lindale and erected beside the coach road where it remained for many years. Slowly, it fell into disrepair until it was rescued from a scrap metal merchant in the 1980s. After an appeal for funds by Allithwaite Parish Council, the obelisk and its plinth were dismantled and carried to Buxton where the obelisk was refurbished by Dorothea Restoration Engineers, Ltd. The plinth was beyond repair and was replaced by Thomas Armstrong of Cockermouth. The memorial was re-established at Lindale in October 1984, with enough funds left to pay for maintenance.
Lindale is just off the busy A590 and this makes a fascinating historic detour. Parking available on the main road by the monument.
2008 is the 200th anniversary of Wilkinson's death and Allithwaite Parish Council is planning to mark this event with a special weekend of celebrations on July 19 & 20. It will be possible to visit Castle Head and the original site of his grave.
(Contact waymarker Flipflopnick for more details of this event.)
Original Location: N 54° 12.586 W 002° 53.333
How it was moved: Disassembled
Type of move: Other
Building Status: Public
Related Website: Not listed
|
Visit Instructions:
Tell of your visit. Post an original photograph if possible.