John Wilkinson Memorial, Lindale, Cumbria
N 54° 12.925 W 002° 53.599
30U E 506956 N 6007494
John "Iron-Mad" Wilkinson had a cast iron obelisk erected over his grave, initially in the grounds of his house at Castlehead. But that is not where the obelisk now stands. Read on for its strange tale.
Waymark Code: WM1NQH
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/10/2007
Views: 105
Just as in life, John "Iron Mad" Wilkinson had a bizarre time after death. He had iron coffins at his two homes. 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 the 20 ton iron memorial obelisk and a massive iron plinth upon which to place it, by boat to the port of Ulverston in Cumbria.
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 re-interred with the massive plinth and memorial obelisk over the grave. A 19th century print shows the obelisk on the hillside near to the mansion.
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.
In 1863, a new owner of Castlehead called Earnest Mucklow retrieved the obelisk from the shrubbery and had it transported to the village, 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 Upper 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. Where it stands now in a little garden for the public to see. An interpretive board explains Wilkinson's life.
John Wilkinson wikipedia (
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Wilkinson Family (
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Streetmap (
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Thanx to Martlakes for allowing reproduction of the above.