Moel Famau and the

Jubilee Tower of King

George III

Charles Stephenson
 First published in 2008 by
Charles Stephenson

ISBN: 978-0-9560590-0-0

Copyright © Charles Stephenson 2008

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the copyright owner.

10 Sark Avenue, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. CH65 9LU

 Contents
i Map

ii Introduction

1 The Short Story

6 Pictures

10 The Longer Story

10 ‘The Mother of the Mountain Band’

11 The Golden Jubilee

16 Bread and Circuses

20 The Tower

27 ‘Blown over by the gale’

30 Restoration

35 Bibliography
 i

Map

An extract from an OS Map1 showing the allotments purchased by

Lord Kenyon in 1811. The portion highlighted comprised an area of
one acre statute measure (4,840 square yards, or 0.4 hectare ) that
was excluded from the sale. A ‘carriage way’ of at least eight yards
(7.3 metres) from Bwlch Penbarras was also excluded, thus public
access to the Jubilee Tower was safeguarded (See pp. 20-21, 29-32).

1
National Archives; CRES 49/2675 336298.
 ii
Introduction

Having first come into the world at Ruthin, Denbighshire, my early

years were spent living at Rhiwisg Farm, Llanbedr Dyffryn Clwyd.
This is of course, even for a child, within reasonable walking
distance of Moel Famau. As a youngster I can well recall
accompanying my parents to the summit, though the magnificent
views and curious ruins to be found there held slight interest for me
then.
How times change, for upon revisiting the site in adult life I
found myself not only marvelling at the vista, but also pondering as
to the remains of the structure that had obviously once occupied the
apex. It seemed to me to be rather curious that no widely available
publication was to be found that might explain something of the
matter. There is of course much information, but one has to be a
fairly diligent researcher amongst various archives in order to acquire
it. I duly applied the diligence, and having assembled the various
pieces of information and learned what I could of Moel Famau and
the Jubilee Tower of King George III, I was left wondering how this
might be shared with a wider audience. This was particularly so as
the bicentennial of that Jubilee approaches.
The answer is this slim booklet, which contains as much as I
have been able to learn on the matter. I have divided it into two parts;
the short story, for those who just want a brief outline concerning
how the tower came to be built and its subsequent fate; and a slightly
longer piece for those who would like a more in-depth examination
of the subject.
There are several variations in spelling of some of the names
that will be found in this work. For example Moel Famau, which is
currently considered correct, can be found rendered, in English texts,
as Moel Famma, Moel Fammau, Moel Fama and Moel Vamma. For
the sake of consistency I have utilised the modern usage throughout
to the extent of altering the original spelling, where necessary, in
quotations from older texts. The same can be said in respect of place
names, such as the village of Cilcain, which can be found rendered as
 iii
Cilcen and Kilken. This, again, has been changed to the current
spelling in the text. In all cases however, the original usage has been
retained within the notes and bibliography.
I owe a great debt to the custodians of various archives and
libraries, without whose immense assistance no work such as this
could be undertaken. I would then like to record my thanks to those
at the Denbighshire Record Office at Ruthin Gaol; the Flintshire
Record Office, Hawarden; Mold Museum and Gallery, Mold; the
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth; Cheshire Record Office,
Chester; and the Salt Museum, Northwich (I am particularly grateful
to the Curator at the latter institution, Matt Wheeler, for his time and
assistance). It goes almost without saying that although they have
been of the greatest help imaginable, any errors contained in this
work are mine and mine alone. I can only hope that they are not too
numerous.
Although I am the author of several works,1 I have decided to
produce this booklet myself rather than have it undertaken by a
publisher. Indeed, the relatively limited appeal of the subject matter
would probably render it commercially unviable. My intention is to
have a limited print-run and, primarily, to donate copies to the
various archives and libraries whose help has proven so
indispensable, as well as similar bodies. Others may then, if they
wish, freely consult the work. I can only hope that they will find it of
interest.

Charles Stephenson, 2008.

charles.d.stephenson@googlemail.com

1
Including The Fortifications of Malta 1530-1945 (Oxford; Osprey, 2004),
Zeppelins: German Airships 1900-40 (Oxford; Osprey, 2004), The Admiral’s
Secret Weapon: Lord Dundonald and the Origins of Chemical Warfare
(Woobridge; Boydell Press, 2006) and Servant to the King for His Fortifications:
Paul Ive and the Practise of Fortification (Doncaster; DP&G, 2008).
 1

The Short Story

The Clwydian Range of hills cover an area of some 1600 hectares (or
nearly 4000 acres in old money) stretching east-west from the Vale
of Clwyd to the Dee Estuary, and north-south from around Prestatyn
to close by Llandegla. This area has, since 1985, been designated as
an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The tallest promontory in the
range, at some 555 metres (1,820 feet), may be found to the north-
east of Llanbedr DC and is named Moel Famau, which translates into
English as ‘Mother’s Mountain’ or ‘Hill of the Mothers.’ It is said
that Moel Famau used to be a volcano, and, rather incredibly, there
exists an account, written at Holywell on the 2 February 1733, of it
erupting on the night of 31 January that year.
This tale needs to be treated with extreme caution, and,
annoyingly, the earliest images of Moel Famau, such as the 1796
painting entitled ‘Carreg Carn March Arthur’ by the local, Halkyn
based, artist John Ingleby, only depict the mountain after the
supposed volcanic event (Picture 1). Indeed, this painting, though
obviously subject to a degree of artistic licence, shows the summit
much as it appears today. We can then only speculate as to the
extent, if any, that natural forces moulded the top of Moel Famau in
1733.
It is though entirely possible to be more specific about the
man-made alterations that were visited upon the peak some 77 years
later, for many of the relevant records still exist. One of the prime
instigators behind the scheme for the erection of a monument to
commemorate the 1810 Golden Jubilee of King George III, who had
ascended the throne on 25 October 1760, seems to be the splendidly
named Reverend Whitehall Whitehall Davies, who owned estates at
Broughton Hall, Flintshire, and Llannerch, Denbighshire. Whitehall
Davies was the rector of St Mary’s Church, Selattyn, Shropshire
when he wrote, on 8 January 1810, to George Kenyon, 2nd Baron
Kenyon of Gredington (from the family seat of Gredington Hall at
Hamner, Flintshire), a fellow member of the Welsh landed gentry.
 2

Kenyon was apprised of the proposal to erect a monument

atop Moel Famau, across the summit of which ran the Flintshire-
Denbighshire border, and informed that the current design under
consideration comprised a ‘pyramid arising from a triangular base.’
Kenyon visited the summit of Moel Famau on 6 July and, we may
infer, approved of the idea of erecting a commemorative monument
there, because some six days later the Flintshire ‘squirearchy',
convened as the Justices of the Peace (magistrates) holding their
Midsummer Quarterly Session, determined to proceed with the
erection of the column. Kenyon made contact with the Heir to the
Throne, Prince George the Prince of Wales, who was soon to become
Prince Regent when George III’s recurrent ‘insanity’ reappeared, and
on 3 August procured the sum of 100 guineas (£105) towards the
cost.
The former pyramid design had by now been superseded, and
a proposal by the architect Thomas Harrison was under consideration
(Picture 2). Harrison had a sound reputation and had been
responsible for a number of prestigious projects located mainly in
northwest England.
With the date of the Jubilee fast approaching, the squirearchy
of Flintshire and Denbighshire formed from amongst their number
two committees. One was to organise and oversee the Jubilee
celebrations whilst the second, which included Whitehall Davies and
Kenyon, was tasked with receiving the ‘plans of the intended
building and to adopt and carry into execution such as may be
thought proper.’
Several thousand persons, according to accounts of the time,
attended the ceremony that took place on the summit of Moel Famau
on 25 October to commemorate the Jubilee. During the course of this
commemoration the foundation stone of the tower was laid by Lord
Kenyon, who made a speech before the crowd descended the
mountain to Denbigh, Ruthin and Mold for free dinners of roasted
oxen and celebrations, of ‘utmost hilarity and loyalty,’ complete with
fireworks.
 3

Other than the ceremonial laying of the foundation-stone, no

further work was attempted for several months, and the design was
changed, reverting to an Egyptian motif (Picture 3). The Egyptian
style was to become eminently fashionable, and Harrison’s design
not only reflected this but also pioneered it, being the first such
structure in the United Kingdom.
No further work was done in respect of the actual memorial
however, and it was not until 27 August 1812 that the name of the
contractor that was actually to build the structure can be traced. He
was Thomas Penson of Wrexham, who practised as a mason,
surveyor and architect, and was, in 1805, appointed Surveyor of
Bridges and other Public Works in Flintshire, and, in 1808, County
Surveyor of Denbighshire.
Though work on erecting the tower was probably completed
by 1813, it has been argued that it was never finished. However,
what exactly this means is unclear and there are several accounts of
the structure in what seems to have been its final state. There is also a
picture, probably painted before 1813, which shows the tower as
being substantially similar to Harrison’s design (Picture 4).
Constructed of rough stone in the local style, it seems that the
structure deteriorated quite rapidly, and by 1846 attempts to raise
funds to repair it were underway. The damage at that time was
apparently severe, and the repairs probably involved a substantial
remodelling of the upper portion (Picture 5). A visitors room and a
shed for horses were also constructed at the same time, and the
access track was improved.
Despite the repair work, it seems that the structure continued
to deteriorate, and eventually suffered a catastrophic failure between
one and two o’clock on the afternoon of 28 October 1862 when
about two thirds of the obelisk, about 36.5 metres of the upper
portion, fell to the ground. That nobody was injured during the
collapse seems fortunate, as there were several persons in the
vicinity, the day being calm. Indeed, according to newspaper reports,
a couple had only just vacated the passage that ran through the base
of the structure when the tower collapsed (Pictures 6-8).
 4

Not everyone was dismayed by this event, the poet, Gerard

Manley Hopkins inspected the summit with the ruins of the tower.
He related the visit in a letter to his mother dated 2 March 1876:

[. . .] a party of us set out for Moel Famau, the highest of the hills
bounding the valley [. . .]. There stands on it what remains of the
Jubilee Tower erected in honour of George III’s 50th year of royalty,
an ugly and trumpery construction, makebelieve-massive, but so frail
that it was blown over by the gale that wrecked the Royal Charter,
and it cumbers the hilltop and interrupts the view.

There were to be several attempts to resurrect the structure

over the next century or so, particularly upon the lead up to Queen
Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. However, it was not until 1970
that a more or less private ad-hoc group, formed from amongst the
ranks of the Denbigh and Flint Branch of the Country Landowners
Association, began to solicit funds and assistance to tidy up the site
and secure the remains from further deterioration. Thanks to a
number of corporate and personal contributors, some ‘200 tons of
sand, aggregate, cement and water’ were carried up to the summit,
where ‘hundreds of tons of fallen masonry’ were moved and access
ramps created at each corner. The remaining original walls were
repointed and strengthened where necessary and four stainless steel
plane tables, supplying visitor information, were installed.
This undoubtedly long overdue exercise resulted in the
appearance of the structure that crowns Moel Famau to this day.
Indeed, though he would no doubt have characterised the original
structure as ‘a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and
elegant friend’ the renovations undertaken in 1970 deservedly won
the Prince of Wales Countryside Award for that year.
Moel Famau and the Jubilee Tower of King George III, or at
least the restored remnant of the latter, now form the centrepiece of
Moel Famau Country Park, an area of some 800 hectares (1800
Acres) within the Clwydian Range. This area constitutes an
outstanding example of what can be achieved in terms of making the
countryside accessible to all. A visit to any part of it is more than
 5

worthwhile, and especially to the summit of Moel Famau on a fine

day. Indeed, few would now agree with Hopkins that the ruins
‘cumber the hilltop and interrupt the view.’ On the contrary, they are
now an integral part of it, whilst the view is, without doubt, truly a
wonder to behold.
6

1. A detail from the 1796

painting entitled ‘Carreg
Carn March Arthur’ by the
Halkyn based, artist John
Ingleby. It depicts Moel
Famau from just south of
Loggerheads some 60 years
after the supposed volcanic
event.

2. A painting by Thomas
Harrison, believed to show
one of the two original
designs for the Jubilee Tower
that he produced. ( Original at
The Salt Museum, Northwich
1977.3419.5).
7

3. Harrison’s ‘Egyptian’
design for the Jubilee
Tower, as submitted to the
Prince Regent on 4 March
1811. There are three,
almost identical, renditions
of this design; at the
Cheshire Record Office
(ZCR 73/52); The Salt
Museum, Northwich
(1984-3633) and at the
Royal Archives, Windsor.

4. The Jubilee Column at

Moel Fammau by Moses
Griffith. Probably painted
in 1813, this version shows
the completed tower as
being substantially similar
to Harrison’s design. The
original watercolour is at
the National Library of
Wales, Aberystwyth.
 8

5. The Jubilee Tower as

it appeared in Edward
Parry’s Royal Visits and
Progresses to Wales [. .
.], p. 416, published in
1851. Other than some
remodelling to the tops
of the corner towers the
base remains essentially
the same. The upper
structure has been
extensively refashioned
however. This, probably,
took place during repairs
carried out in 1846.

6. The base of the tower sometime after the collapse of the upper
portion on 28 October 1862. At least two of the corner towers are
more or less still intact, probably dating this picture to the late
nineteenth century. The large number of people atop them indicates
that they were a popular destination. It was fear for the safety of
such visitors that impelled Alegernon Potts to ask, in 1904, for
warning signs to be erected. (Author’s collection).
 9

7. Taken from a different perspective, the ruins of the tower appear

to have deteriorated in this view as compared to the previous
picture. (Author’s collection).

8. The ruined base following the collapse of the corner

towers. This was, if memory serves, much how it appeared in the
1960s before steps were taken to stabilise what remained. (Author’s
collection).
 10

The Longer Story

‘The Mother of the Mountain Band.’1

The Clwydian Range of hills cover an area of some 1600 hectares (or
nearly 4000 acres in old money) stretching east-west from the Vale
of Clwyd to the Dee Estuary, and north-south from around Prestatyn
to close by Llandegla. This area has, since 1985, been designated as
an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is a proposition that
few could argue with.2 Indeed, the Clwydians form a magnificent
landscape, as was noted by the polymath Captain Richard Burton,
en-route from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova Scotia aboard the Cunarder
‘S. S. Canada’ on 21 April 1860. As the vessel traversed the Mersey
estuary he gazed upon ‘[. . .] the sun streaked Welsh mountains, a
distant reproduction of the Spanish Sierra Nevada, bounding the
horizon on the left.’3
The tallest promontory in the range, at some 555 metres
(1,820 feet), may be found to the north-east of Llanbedr DC and is
named Moel Famau, which translates into English as ‘Mother’s
Mountain’ or ‘Hill of the Mothers.’ It is said that Moel Famau used
to be a volcano, and, rather incredibly, there exists an account,
written at Holywell on the 2 February 1733, of it erupting on the
night of 31 January that year. The account begins by recalling the
exceptionally heavy snowfall that had occurred, before moving on to
the eruption:

The night before last, Moel Famau, a very high mountain in this
neighbourhood, was heard to utter, as it were, deep groans; the
adjacent hills trembled from their roots. The noise, at eleven o’clock,
was like the sound of a distant thunder, from the rolling of huge

1
‘Old Möel Fama sits in state,
The Mother of the mountain band,
In conscious majesty elate,
The cherished beacon of the land.’
Sarah Lawrence, ‘An Adieu to Upton Bank’ in Poems (Kinder; London, 1847) p. 78. Verse 4.
2
http://www.clwydianrangeaonb.org.uk/text01.asp?PageId=2
3
Quoted in Mary S Lovell, A Rage to Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton (London;
Abacus, 1999) p. 345.
 11
stones down a craggy precipice. At twelve, there was aloud clap, and
the vertex [summit] of the hill threw up, in the same instant, vast
bodies of combustible matter; liquid fire rolled along the heaps of
ruins; at the close of all, nature seemed to make a grand effort, and
rent one side of the mountain, which was solid stone, into a hiatus
[fissure], whose breadth seemed to be about 200 yards; the summit
of the hill tumbled into the vast opening, and the top appears level,
which before was quite perpendicular. All is now hushed; but in the
places where the fire melted the snow, the earth throws out the
verdure of May. At Ruthin, as two persons were foolishly
endeavouring to make their escape from the danger, they were
buried in a [snow] drift; several made their escape from St. Asaph
into the sea, and fell victims to their timidity.4

This tale needs to be treated with extreme caution, and, annoyingly,

the earliest images of Moel Famau, such as the 1796 painting entitled
‘Carreg Carn March Arthur’5 by the local, Halkyn based, artist John
Ingleby, only depict the mountain after the supposed volcanic event.6
Indeed, this painting, though obviously subject to a degree of artistic
licence, shows the summit much as it appears today (Picture 1). We
can then only speculate as to the extent, if any, that natural forces
moulded the top of Moel Famau in 1733.

The Golden Jubilee

It is though entirely possible to be more specific about the man-made

alterations that were visited upon the peak some 77 years later, for
many of the relevant records still exist. One of the prime instigators
behind the scheme for the erection of a monument to commemorate
the 1810 Golden Jubilee of King George III, who had ascended the
throne on 25 October 1760, seems to be the splendidly named
Reverend Whitehall Whitehall Davies, who owned estates at

4
The Annual Register, or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature for the Year 1773, Fifth Edition
(London; Printed for J. Dodsley in Pall Mall, 1793) p. 76.
5
http://www.walesontheweb.org/cgi-bin/gw/chameleon
6
John Ingleby (1749-1808) was a topographical artist who specialised in producing small watercolour
views. See: Paul Joyner, Artists in Wales C.1740-c.1851: A Handlist of Artists Living and Working in
Wales from C.1740 Up to C.1851 (Aberystwyth; National Library of Wales, 1997).
 12

Broughton Hall, Flintshire, and Llannerch, Denbighshire.7 Whitehall

Davies was the rector of St Mary’s Church, Selattyn, Shropshire8
when he wrote, on 8 January 1810, to George Kenyon, 2nd Baron
Kenyon of Gredington (from the family seat of Gredington Hall at
Hamner, Flintshire), a fellow member of the Welsh landed gentry.
Kenyon was apprised of the proposal to erect a monument
atop Moel Famau, across the summit of which ran the Flintshire-
Denbighshire border, and informed that the current design under
consideration comprised a ‘pyramid arising from a triangular base.’
This construction, whose designer remains unknown, was to be
adorned with ‘gigantic tablets of cast iron [. . .] inserted immovably
into the stone’ upon which inscriptions, in Welsh, English and Latin,
executed in ‘the antique style of character’ were to feature.9 Kenyon
visited the summit of Moel Famau on 6 July and, we may infer,
approved of the idea of erecting a commemorative monument there,
because some six days later the Flintshire ‘squirearchy', convened as
the Justices of the Peace (magistrates) holding their Midsummer
Quarterly Session, determined to:

Proceed with the erection of the Column, and to seek subscriptions

towards the cost wherever they might be had, and to invite their
neighbours in Denbighshire to share with them the honour and the
cost.10

7
John Burke and John Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of
Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. I – A to L (London; Henry Colburn, 1847) p. 655.
8
‘A List of the Subscribing Members of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,’ an appendix
to The Rev. Hubert Marsh, The National Religion the Foundation of National Education: A Sermon
Preached in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, London on Thursday, June 13, 1811 [. . .] (London;
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1811) p. 54. The church was part of the diocese of St
Asaph, which included Flintshire and Denbighshire, with parts of Caernarvonshire, Merionethshire,
Montgomeryshire, Cheshire and Shropshire. Thomas Nicholas, Annals and Antiquities of the Counties
and County Families of Wales (Baltimore; Genealogical Publishing, 1991) p. 448.
9
Quoted in R J Edwards, A History of the Jubilee Tower on Moel Fammau in North Wales (London;
Arliss Andrews, 1885). Reprint edition, The Prince of Wales Countryside Award: Moel Fammau
Project. A History of the Jubilee Tower on Moel Fammau in North Wales, by R J Edwards (1885)
reproduced from an original copy and amplified from contemporary papers with an account of its
rehabilitation for European Conservation Year 1970 (Mold; Flintshire County Council, 1970) p. 7.
(Hereafter cited as ‘Edwards’). The manuscript of Edwards book is in the National Library of Wales,
Aberystwyth. NLW MS 2108B. It contains some material that did not appear in the published work.
10
Quoted in Edwards. p. 8.
 13

Kenyon made contact with the Heir to the Throne, Prince George the
Prince of Wales, who was soon to become Prince Regent when
George III’s recurrent ‘insanity’ reappeared, and on 3 August
procured the sum of 100 guineas (£105) towards the cost. The next
twelve donors, in descending order of contribution (which perhaps
gives some indication of the pecking order amongst the North Wales
squirearchy) were as follows:

Lord Kenyon £52.50

Sir Thomas Mostyn MP, £52.50
The Reverend W Whitehall Davies £26.25
Sir Edward Lloyd £25
David Pennant £25
F R Price, the High Sheriff for Flintshire £21
Sir John Williams £21
Sir Stephen Glynne £20
Sir Thomas Hanmer £10.50
Mostyn Edwards £10.50
William Shipley £10.50
Thomas Hanmer £10.5011

The former pyramid design had by now been superseded, and a

proposal by the architect Thomas Harrison was under consideration.
Harrison had a sound reputation and had been responsible for a
number of prestigious projects located mainly in northwest
England.12 Whitehall Davies wrote to Kenyon on 30 September
1810, explaining that he had received ‘a very clever sketch from
Harrison’ and that he thought the ‘Gentlemen of Flintshire are very
willing to leave the plan to his superior taste.’13 Harrison’s sketch,
though it may have been clever, did not contain the final design and,
according to an account published the following year, his idea was
‘to erect on the very apex of the mountain a lofty embattled tower,

11
Edward Parry, Royal Visits and Progresses to Wales [. . .] (London; Chapman Hall, 1851) p. 415.
The amounts have been rendered into modern usage. There were also a great number of people who
subscribed one guinea (£1.05) to the fund, and a number of documents relating can be found in the
Denbighshire Record Office, located at Ruthin Gaol. DRO DD/WY/5742.
12
See the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for a full account of his life and works.
13
Quoted in: Peter Howell, ‘The Jubilee Tower on Moel Famau’ in Architectural History, Vol. 27.
1984. p. 332.
 14

bearing some affinity to the turrets of Caernarfon Castle.’14 Some

skilful detective work by Peter Howell unearthed two drawings by
Harrison that are in the Salt Museum at Northwich in Cheshire,
which, he concluded, showed the original designs for the tower.15
These designs were both impressive and ambitious, and being
so would have undoubtedly proven expensive to construct (Picture
2). Indeed, it is clear that there were already worries over the
financial aspect of the scheme and the Flintshire magistrates decided,
on 4 October, that reminders would be sent out to those who had
promised to subscribe, and an effort made to induce them to give
more.16
With the date of the Jubilee fast approaching, the squirearchy
of Flintshire and Denbighshire formed from amongst their number
two committees. One was to organise and oversee the Jubilee
celebrations whilst the second, which included Whitehall Davies and
Kenyon, was tasked with receiving the ‘plans of the intended
building and to adopt and carry into execution such as may be
thought proper.’17 The members of this latter group, other than
Kenyon and Whitehall Davies, were: Sir Thomas Hamner, Edward
Jones Esq. and the Reverend Hope Wynne Eyton, all representing
Flintshire. The Denbighshire contingent comprised Sir W W Wynn,
Sir Foster Cunliffe, Reverend Dr. Middleton, Reverend Thomas
Clough and Reverend the Warden of Ruthin.
The context within which the decision to celebrate the King’s
Jubilee deserves some minor consideration. Firstly, it was, as Edward
Parry was to later term it, an ‘unusual event’ for a reign to last for
fifty years.18 The only English monarchs to achieve such longevity
had been Henry III (1207-1272) and Edward III (1327-1377), whilst
Scotland’s James VI, who also became James I of England in 1603,

14
A Descendant of Sir D de H (‘a descendant of an antient [ancient] line of loyal ancestry’)
‘Celebration of the Jubilee, upon Moel’Famma Oct. 25 1810’ in Sylvanus Urban, The Gentleman’s
Magazine and Historical Chronicle: from January to June 1811, Volume LXXXI (London; John
Nichols and Son, 1811) p. 126. (Hereafter cited as ‘Urban’).
15
Howell. p. 333. Salt Museum references: 1977.3419.5 and 1977.3419.?
16
Reminder for promised subscription to Jubilee Tower. Ruthin Gaol. DRO DD/DM/1025/2
17
Howell. p. 332.
18
Parry. p. 415.
 15

reigned for a total of nearly 58 years, from 1567-1625. No monarch

within living memory had then come close to achieving a fifty-year
reign; George II, the grandfather of George III, sat on the throne for a
little over 33 years.
There was also a political aspect, inasmuch as it was a time
when ‘Boney the Bogeyman’19 loomed large. Indeed, though his
ambitions of invading Britain had been comprehensively thwarted by
Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar in 1805, Napoleon was otherwise at the
height of his powers. His main enemy, the recently created United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was almost completely
isolated. Only Britain's continued dominance as a sea power stopped
France taking over the distant Spanish and Dutch colonies in
America, India and the Far East, and thus creating a gigantic world
empire. Moreover the struggle against Napoleon was, it may be
remembered, a war against a revolutionary state that had
dispossessed and executed most of its own aristocracy and governing
elite. Those who had lost their power, and in many case their heads,
in France were from the same class as those who constituted the
governing elite in Britain. The social system in Britain was not, to
the undiscerning eye of those at the bottom, markedly different to
that which had pertained in Royalist France. Indeed, Napoleon
claimed that he would have invaded Britain as a liberator, and that he
would have ‘exited the democratic element against the aristocracy.’20
The net result could be little other than to make those at the
top in Britain somewhat nervous; criticism of the political and social
status quo resulted in prosecution and imprisonment. Victims of this
sensitivity included, for example, Thomas Paine who had, in 1791,
published his most influential work, The Rights of Man, in which he
attacked the hereditary monarchical principle and argued for equal
political rights. The British government banned the work and
charged the author with seditious libel (publishing writings that
subverted the authority of the monarch).

19
Eliza Gutch and Mabel Peacock, County Folk-Lore, Vol. 5: (London: Folk-Lore Society, 1908), pp.
383-384.
20
A Vieusseux, Napoleon Bonaparte: His Sayings and his Deeds. Two Volumes. (London; Charles
Knight & Co., 1846) Vol. I. p. 135.
 16

Bread and Circuses

Bread and circuses are, metaphorically, famed for keeping ‘the great
unwashed’ quiet, and the ceremony that took place on the summit of
Moel Famau on 25 October, and the celebrations afterwards, were, if
reports published shortly afterwards are to be believed, redolent of
both.

On the happy event of our Gracious Sovereign having completed the

fiftieth year of his reign, the Counties of Flint and Denbigh assembled
from 3000 to 5000 persons on the summit of Moel Famau [. . .]
On this grand station, the two above-named Counties
determined to show their loyalty, by erecting a Jubilee Column, to
commemorate the happiness they felt, in common with the whole
nation [. . .]
The sun shone upon the undertaking; and the thousands who
attended seemed all animated with sympathetic joy on the occasion.
The Committees and Gentlemen of the two Counties met at about
noon at the Bwlch Penbarras, between Ruthin and Mold; where,
also, a detachment of the Flintshire and Denbighshire Loyal Militias [.
. .] headed a procession of the principal Gentlemen of the two
Counties to the top of the mountain, a distance of nearly two miles,
most of them on horseback. [. . . ] Lord Kenyon [deputising for Prince
George, the Prince of Wales] [. . .] and sundry others of the most
respected families of the Counties, ascended the mountain,
accompanied by a constellation of beautiful Welsh ladies. The
martial music and appearance of the Military and procession on
horseback to the summit, already thickly peopled with an assembled
multitude, was interesting and grand. Soon after, the Military formed
a circle round the summit, and Lord Kenyon delivered to the
Architect several coins and medals alluding to and commemorating
the great occurrences and glories of the Reign, and deposited one of
each in an earthen vase of the country, under the foundation stone.21

21
Twelve in number: A Guinea of George III; a half Guinea after the Union with Ireland; a gilt medal of
his Majesty, on his completing the 50th year of his reign, with the motto “We praise thee, O God;” a
white medal of his Majesty on the same occasion, expressing also the Union with Ireland, and the
universal joy of the Nation; a bronze medal of his Majesty; the reverse alluding to the Victories of the
War, especially Lord Nelson’s glorious Victory of the Nile, 1798; a bronze medal of his Majesty, on his
preservation from an assassin in 1810; a bronze medal on the Union with Ireland, in Jan. 1801; a bronze
medal on the Peace [of Amiens] 1802; a bronze medal of the Prince and Princess of Wales; a bronze
 17
The Noble Lord then, in an excellent speech, in which, from his
heart, flowed the most noble and truly loyal sentiments, alluded to
the leading incidents in our Gracious Sovereigns character [. . .]
Lord Kenyon then distributed more medals; and [. . .] laid the
first stone of the intended column in the name of his Royal Highness
the Prince of Wales. [. . .] Mr Harrison then read the following
inscription to be fixed into the stone:

This stone was laid by

George Lord Kenyon,
Baron of Gredington in Flintshire;
he being graciously deputed by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,
for and in his name to lay the same;
when the Right Hon. Earl Grosvenor,
and Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, Bart.
were Lords Lieutenants of the Counties of Flint and Denbigh,
in the Sheriffalty of
Richard Lloyd, of Fron Hawlog, and
Francis Richard Price, of Bryn-y-pys,
Esquires,
in the presence of the Nobility, Gentry,
and Yeomanry of each County.
It being part of the foundation of an
Edifice to be erected by
Voluntary Subscription,
in commemoration of our
much beloved and revered Monarch
GEORGE THE THIRD,
King of the United Kingdoms of
Great Britain and Ireland,
completing his fiftieth year of
His Glorious Reign,
and upon the 25th day of October
in the year of the Christian Æra 1810.22

The ‘circus’ portion of the day was then completed by joyful

acclamation, volleys of musketry from the militia members, and a
rendering of God Save the King, before the crowd descended the

medal of Earl Howe, on his glorious victory 4th June 1794; a bronze medal of Marquis Cornwallis, on
receiving Tippoo Sultan’s Sons as Hostages in 1792; a bronze medal of Lord Nelson, from the statue
erected at Birmingham to his glorious memory. Urban. p. 127.
22
Urban. pp. 125-6.
 18

mountain to Denbigh, Ruthin and Mold for the ‘bread.’ Free dinners
of roasted oxen were prepared at these places, and the celebrations,
of ‘utmost hilarity and loyalty,’ complete with fireworks continued
through the evening. It was noted that ‘Lord Kenyon, upon this
occasion, desirous that the poor should participate in the general joy
that prevailed, ordered a fat ox to be distributed in the vicinity of
Mold, and likewise one in and about the town of Hanmer [. . .]
several sheep he also distributed in smaller districts in the country.’23
At Chirk Castle, Denbighshire, the ‘great gates’ were thrown open in
the afternoon and

[. . .] tables were spread in the quadrangle with plenty of beef and

plum pudding, and Cwrw da [good beer] flowed from the cellar, and
above 500 of the surrounding poor were made happy on the glorious
occasion. In short, all was joy and gladness at the Castle on that
memorable day.24

Other than the ceremonial laying of the foundation-stone, no further

work was attempted for several months. Indeed, the design was
changed again, reverting to an Egyptian motif, as Whitehall Davies
was to inform Kenyon on 4 March 1811:

Harrison disappointed me by not attending the meeting at Mold. [. . .]

This circumstance has occasioned an inevitable delay; but we have
done all in our power to prevent a recurrence of the disappointment
by ordering specimens of stone from various quarries on and near
the mountain with the cost of delivery on the summit, also of lime and
sand, to be procured, and presented to the committee on the 27th of
this month. Water is found within 200 yards [182 metres] of the spot
and by artificial means may probably be procured nearer.
By this post I send a letter to Harrison, to urge the immediate
despatch of a finished drawing of the building to your Lordship for
presentation to the Prince if it be deemed worthy of His Royal
Highness’ inspection. I am myself much struck with the simple
grandeur of the Plan, and being Egyptian is at once unique (as to

23
Urban. p. 126.
24
Quoted in Edwards. p. 20.
 19
this kingdom) and appropriate – the name Abercromby will explain
my meaning [. . .] 25

The reference to Abercromby probably refers to the monument,

completed in 1809, to Lieutenant General Sir Ralph Abercromby,
who had been killed in Egypt in 1801 whilst fighting the French.
Located in the south transept of St Paul's Cathedral, London, and
designed by Richard Westmacott, this monument featured the
unmistakably Egyptian motif of twin sphinxes flanking a rendition of
the mortally wounded general. Indeed, the, ultimately unsuccessful,
campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt and the near east
between 1798 and 1801 had awakened, or reawakened, an interest in
all things associated with that area. Bonaparte had not merely taken
an army with him, but also a number of scholars to study the
archaeology and artefacts of the Pharaohs.26 One of their most
important discoveries, in July 1799, was the Rosetta Stone, and these
activities resulted in a new era of Egyptian studies both in France and
Britain. This found expression in the ‘Egyptian Revival,’ which,
amongst other things, influenced architectural style, one of the
physical embodiments of which led to the Egyptian Hall in
Piccadilly, London, being constructed in 1812.27 A design for a
national monument, in the shape of a ‘gigantic pyramid’ atop
Shooter’s Hill, Greenwich, was also proposed, though never
realised.28 The Egyptian style was then to become eminently
fashionable, and Harrison’s design did not merely reflect this but

25
Quoted in Edwards. p. 12.
26
Douglas J Brewer and Emily Teeter, Egypt and the Egyptians (Cambridge; Cambridge University
Press, 1999) p. 6.
27
Nikolaus Pevsner, Studies in Art, Architecture, and Design. Two Volumes. Vol. I. From Mannerism
to Romanticism (New York; Walker, 1968) pp. 213, 251.
28
James Stevens Curl, The Egyptian Revival: Ancient Egypt as the Inspiration for Design Motifs in the
West (Abingdon; Routledge, 2005) p. 204. The most obvious, and famous, Egyptian monument in the
UK, the so-called ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’ on the Thames embankment in London, has nothing to do with
the Egyptian Revival. Firstly, it is a genuine artefact, dating from around 1460BC, the time of Pharaoh
Thotmes III. Secondly, though the project was first mooted in 1801, it was not until 1878 that the
artefact was finally brought to the UK to commemorate the British victory over Napoleon. See: W R
Wilde, Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira, Tenerife and along the Shores of the Mediterranean [. . .]
(Dublin; William Curry, 1844) p. 619.
 20

pioneered it, being the first such completed structure in the United
Kingdom (Picture 3).29

The Tower

The design was, it seems, indeed approved by the Prince, who had
taken over the monarchy from his father and become Prince Regent
on 5 February 1811.30 The summit of Moel Famau was owned by the
Crown, via the recently established Office of Woods, Forests and
Land Revenues, through it being part of an allotment to the crown
under the Llanferres and Cilcain Enclosure Act.31 Despite Kenyon
purchasing several of the allotments32 around the summit in 1811, the
Conveyance stipulated that an area around the proposed monument,
and a way to access it, remain in the possession of the Crown so as to
guarantee public accessibility. The exception to the land transfer was
stated as follows:

Except nevertheless and always reserved to His Majesty His Heirs

and Successors out of these Presents and out of the sale for which
the contracting and agreeing is hereby certified a space or circuit of

29
Howell. p. 334.
30
For the Regency Act, 1811 see: A Aspinall and E Anthony Smith (Eds.) English Historical
Documents 1783-1832 (London; Routledge, 2000) pp. 83-6.
31
National Archives: CRES 49/2675 336298. Details of the ‘Llanferres and Kilken Act’ can be found at
the Flintshire Record Office - QS/DEM/1, QS/DEM/2 - and Ruthin Gaol - QSD/DE/1 - whilst relevant
maps are contained in Roger J P Kain, John Chapman and Richard R. Oliver, The Enclosure Maps of
England and Wales 1595–1918: A Cartographic Analysis and Electronic Catalogue (Cambridge;
Cambridge University Press, 2004).
32
Enclosure or, as it was sometimes spelt, Inclosure was, and remains, a matter of great controversy.
Put basically, it involved the appropriation of common land to private landowners and the forced
consolidation of agriculture from small-scale open-field to a larger enclosed field system. This process
was of long-standing, beginning in the 14th century, but it was under the pressure of a greatly expanding
population and the need to use the land more efficiently that thousands of Enclosure Acts were passed
by Parliament in the period 1750-1850. Though small landowners and those who lost their communal
rights were sometimes compensated with plots of land referred to as ‘allotments,’ these Acts frequently
forced smaller farmers to sell to the big landowners. This in turn created large numbers of landless and
dispossessed people who migrated to the cities in search of a living. Dependent upon point of view, this
was either a much-needed shake-up of an archaic and inefficient system, or a rapacious quest by large
and unscrupulous landowners. For further reading see:
http://www.countrylovers.co.uk/places/histlan4.htm, John E. Martin, Feudalism to Capitalism: Peasant
and Landlord in English Agrarian Development (London; Macmillan, 1983), Frank A. Sharman, ‘An
Introduction to the Enclosure Acts’ in The Journal of Legal History, Volume 10, Issue 1 May 1989, pp.
45-70.
 21
land part of the said Allotment or one of them to be of the superficial
content of one acre statute measure33 round the site [of the proposed
tower] together with the right of a convenient carriage way to the
same of the breadth of eight yards [7.3 metres] at the least [. . .] for
the use of all persons resorting thereto from the highway [. . .] being
the turnpike road from Mold to Ruthin [. . .]. 34

Following these transactions Kenyon proceeded to begin at least

preliminary work on the site by having a boundary wall
constructed.35 No further work was done in respect of the actual
memorial however, and it was not until 27 August 1812 that the
name of the contractor that was actually to build the structure can be
traced via a letter from William Wynne, Clerk of the Peace for
Flintshire, to Kenyon.

[. . .] The men employed to search for stone were not able to find any
on the east side where they were directed to try [,] in consequence of
which I directed them to begin last week on the west side of the hill,
and I now have the satisfaction to state [. . .] that good stone has
been found there within a few yards of the summit which will lessen
the expense of the building very much. I shall inform Mr Penson of
this circumstance to enable him to form his estimate with greater
accuracy.36

‘Mr Penson’ was Thomas Penson of Wrexham, who practised as a

mason, surveyor and architect, and was, in 1805, appointed Surveyor
of Bridges and other Public Works in Flintshire, and, in 1808,
County Surveyor of Denbighshire. Given that his relationship with
the Flintshire squirearchy appears, from the 1780s, to have been
‘uncomfortable owing to his inability to keep costs within estimates,’
and that, owing to this, from 1810 all work that he would normally

33
An ‘Acre Statute Measure’ was 4,840 square yards, or 0.4 hectare.
34
‘Extract from Conveyance to Lord Kenyon of Allotments in Llanferres and Kilken dated 23 March
1811.’ National Archives; CRES 49/2675 336298.
35
Howell. p. 335.
36
Edwards. p. 13.
 22

have got almost by default was put out to competitive tender, he

seems a strange choice.37
Perhaps it was his difficulties with previous estimates that led
to him submitting one that was considered somewhat inflated in
respect of erecting the memorial? Harrison certainly thought it too
expensive, as is made plain in his letter of 13 September 1812 to
Kenyon:

[. . .] the enclosed estimate [. . .] much exceeds what I hoped the

Tower would have been built for. I will endeavour in the course of
this week to send an experienced workman to view the situation and
procure the necessary information of the value of material etc. to
enable him to make an estimate of the work and will then write again
[. . .] Your Lordship may be sure Mr. Penson’s estimate will not be
divulged.38

We do not know how much the estimate was, but it was almost
certainly more than £3,235; the latter figure being the one presented
to the committee tasked with receiving the ‘plans of the intended
building and to adopt and carry into execution such as may be
thought proper’ on 1 October. On that date the committee,
augmented with several of the subscribers, convened at The Eagles
Inn, Wrexham, and resolved:

That a contract be entered into with Mr. Penson for erecting the
Jubilee Tower, according to a plan designed by Mr Harrison, and
adopted at a former meeting of the subscribers.39

It was also revealed at the meeting that the total amount collected in
subscriptions up to that date came to a little over £1,130; there was
thus a shortfall of over £2,100. Further subscriptions were solicited,
and one account details that by 15 August 1814 Penson had been
paid £1,750.40 Howell concludes that Kenyon made up the balance.41

37
Robert Anthony, ‘Penson, Thomas, Sr.’ in AW Skempton (Ed.), A Biographical Dictionary of Civil
Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland (London; Thomas Telford, 2002) p. 518.
38
Quoted in Edwards. pp. 13-14.
39
A report of the meeting is reproduced in Edwards. pp. 14-15. In part, quoted in Howell. p. 335.
40
Plasnewydd MSS at Ruthin Gaol. GB 0209 DD/GR/333.
 23

It is said that the tower was never finished. However, what

exactly this means is unclear and there are several accounts of the
structure in what seems to have been its final state, which was
probably reached within a two years of its inception:42

On the top of Moel Famau, a lofty eminence rising 1845 feet above
the level of the sea, and a few miles south-east from Denbigh,
stands a pyramidical monument of great size and conspicuous
figure. It is called the Jubilee Monument, and was erected about
1810 to commemorate the 50th year of the reign of George III. It is a
rough stone building of 150 feet [45 metres] in height, and measures
50 feet [15 metres] in diameter at the base.43

This 1836 account tallies with those contained in a guidebook

published in 1839 – ‘a rough stone building of pyramidical form,
about 150 feet in height, and 60 feet [18 metres] in diameter at the
base.’44
There is also a painting of the tower, which depicts it as being
very like Harrison’s design. This is by Moses Griffith, the Welsh
draughtsman and watercolour artist employed by Thomas Pennant,
the Flintshire born traveller, naturalist and antiquary. Griffith has
been described as an ‘able and ingenious draughtsman’45 and ‘an
artist greatly in advance of his day, who understood architectural
detail, and drew with photographic accuracy.’46 Following the death
of his patron in 1798, Griffith was retained by Pennant’s son, David,
and during the period 1805-1813 he executed some 200 watercolours
41
Howell. p. 340. n. 30.
42
Edwards argues that ‘[. . .] an impression seems to prevail that the process of rearing the edifice
extended over a very long period, for which, however, I have not been able to find any authority.’
Edwards. p. 42. Further, Moses Griffith painted a rendition of it in completed form, and he is adjudged
to have painted nothing after 1813. Megan Ellis, Griffith, Moses (1747-1819) http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-
GRIF-MOS-1747.html
43
Peter Orlando Hutchinson (writing pseudonymously as Pedestres (Pedestrian), along with his walking
stick, Sir Clavileno Woodenpeg Knight of Snowdon) A Pedestrian Tour of Thirteen Hundred and Forty
Seven Miles through Wales and England, Two Volumes (London; Saunders and Otley, 1836) Vol. II.
pp. 256-7.
44
Leigh’s Guide to Wales and Monmouthshire (London; Leigh and Son, 1839) p. 250.
45
The Analytical Review, or History of Literature, Domestic and Foreign [. . .] Vol. XVI From May to
August Inclusive, 1793 (London; J Johnson, 1793) p. 19.
46
Archaeologia Cambrensis: the Journal of the Cambrian Archaeological Association Vol. X, Third
Series (London; J Russell Smith, 1865) p. 212.
 24
47
of Welsh scenes. His view of the Jubilee Tower, which is undated,
featured in the 1998 Thomas Pennant exhibition held at The National
Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.48
It may be recalled that David Pennant was one of the original
contributors to the fund to erect the monument, and it would
therefore not seem strange that he should wish Griffith to depict it.
What would be unusual though would be for Griffith to not represent
it as it was (Picture 4). Indeed, his rendition is so close to the design
by Harrison that, if he did not paint it from life, he must have copied
Harrison’s work, three copies of which are known to exist.49 Given
Griffith’s record and reputation however, and the fact that he lived
close to the scene at Holywell at the requisite period (as did his
employer), such a proposition is unfeasible. The importance of these
points becomes clear when considering later descriptions of the
monument, which describe and depict an altered structure.
The most complete written description is given in an account
published in 1849 by Samuel Lewis. This detailed account indicates
that there have been fundamental changes made to the upper
structure:

[. . .] a lofty stone structure, comprising a square central tower six

yards [5.5 metres] in length on each side, and thirty-nine feet [12
metres] high, flanked at each angle with a square tower of the same
dimensions and elevation. From the central tower, and resting partly
on the angular towers, rises a square tower of larger dimensions, to
the height of forty feet [12 metres], surmounted by an obelisk thirty-
six feet high [11 metres]. This structure, commonly called the Jubilee
Column, occupies a base eighteen yards [16.5 metres] square: the
angular towers are solid, but the central tower on the basement is
perforated with an arch, and it was intended to construct a staircase
leading from this archway to the larger tower above. The building is
altogether 115 feet [35 metres] in height, and, from its commanding
situation, is a prominent and very imposing object in the views from

47
Megan Ellis, Griffith, Moses (1747-1819) http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-GRIF-MOS-1747.html
48
http://www.llgc.org.uk/ardd/pennant/llun29.gif
49
Two, in Cheshire Record Office, Chester, and The Salt Museum, Northwich, have already been
referred to. The version sent to the Prince Regent in 1811 is in the Royal Archives at Windsor.
http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page3553.asp
 25
all the high grounds in the neighbouring counties; it is seen from the
city of Chester, from Liverpool, and other distant places, and forms a
conspicuous and well-known landmark for vessels navigating the
Irish Sea.50

Edward Parry’s 1851 account - ‘a rough stone pyramidal

mass of masonry, one hundred and fifty feet [45 metres] in height,
and sixty feet [18 metres] in diameter at the base’ – is substantially in
accord with earlier descriptions, but he also includes a drawing.51
Clearly, if this drawing is accurate, and it tallies closely with Lewis’
description, then the tower had been altered after construction
(Picture 5).
Given that all the accounts and representations are accurate,
then there is only one possible explanation; that the repairs recorded
as having been undertaken in 1846 were much more extensive than
has hitherto been believed, and resulted in a substantial remodelling
of the upper structure (see below). Unfortunately there is no direct
evidence for this, but as an explanation it can at least be reasonably
accommodated within what is known.
The problem remains though that none of the descriptions or
depictions indicate what was unfinished about it, though Lewis’s
comment about the staircase is perhaps a clue even if his source is
unknown. It seems also the case that no inscribed plaque, or
inscription of any sort, was ever mounted.52 The remarks concerning
the ‘rough stone’ construction indicate that the tower was constructed
using vernacular - that which is typical for an area or a region –
techniques and materials, and an examination of the remains confirm
this. Those familiar with the surrounding countryside will be aware
of the many buildings, particularly farm buildings, which are
constructed from small and medium sized pieces of roughly cut
stone.

50
Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales [. . .] Two Volumes (London; S Lewis and Co.,
1849) Available online at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=47842
51
Parry. pp. 414-6.
52
Edwards. p. 42.
 26

I spent my early years at Rhiwisg, a farm on the Ruthin-Mold

road just outside Llanbedr DC, and all the older buildings there were
constructed of such material. A more easily accessible example can
however be found at Holywell; the Greenfield Valley Heritage
Information Centre was constructed, faithfully utilising local
techniques, from the remains of farm outbuildings that formerly sat
on Moel Famau. Whilst such techniques seem eminently suitable for
relatively low buildings, albeit at the cost of a greater degree of
maintenance in comparison with more expensive constructions, one
wonders at their fitness for a structure such as the tower.
Other, roughly contemporaneous, lofty memorials built of
close-fitting masonry survive to this day. Examples include the
Marquess of Anglesey’s Column, also designed by Harrison, at
Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Anglesey, which was finished in 1817 and is
some 35.5 metres tall.53 This column is of course not in quite as
exposed a position as the Jubilee Tower, but the memorial to the first
Duke of Sutherland, situated atop Beinn a' Bhragaidh, just to the west
of Golspie, East Sutherland, overlooks the North Sea. It is thus
exposed to the full severity of the weather in that famously
tempestuous region, yet its nine-metre sandstone statue mounted on a
21-metre pedestal of locally quarried stone has been there since
1834.54
It may be that the intention had been to render the exposed
surfaces with a protective coating. Both Harrison’s plans and
Griffith’s painting show what appear to be smooth surfaces, though
whether this was achieved through the application of a coating is
impossible to say. What is more certain is that an un-rendered ‘rough
stone’ construction, as appears to be pictured by Parry, would be
somewhat vulnerable to the depredations of the weather, and that this
might be the case is perhaps borne out by the subsequent history of
the tower.

53
http://www.northwalesattractions.co.uk/Images/Virtual/MofA/MofAHome.html
54
Charles Stephenson, ‘Why this effigy of a man keeps the company of eagles,’ in the Press & Journal,
Highland Edition, 30 December 1994.
 27

‘Blown over by the gale.’

Requests for subscriptions to put the tower in a state of repair were

being made by 1846.55 The damage at that time was apparently
severe: ‘[. . .] one corner being completely down; this portion was
rebuilt and the building underwent a thorough pointing, or ere this it
would have been a “heap of stones.’56 There were 31 listed
contributors, including ‘The Lord Bishop of St Asaph’ (£5) and
‘Henry Potts Esq.,’ who also gave £5 and agreed to provide ‘the
Stone gratis.’ The most generous subscriber was Kenyon, who
donated £50 and promised ‘a further subscription if required.’57 A
subscription list for ‘The Purpose of Building a Visitors Room and
Shed for Horses, and for Repairing the Mountain Road’ was also
opened, though there are only three names appended and the total
sum pledged amounted to £3.55.58 Whether this sum was sufficient,
which seems doubtful, or further funds were raised, is unknown. A
guide published in 1847 does however record that the work was
completed: ‘[. . .] the mountain road has lately been repaired and a
room for visitors with a shed for horses erected on the summit [. .
.].’59 As previously argued, it may have been at this time that the
physical structure of the uppermost portion of the tower was altered
to its final state.
Kenyon, certainly the greatest benefactor, and arguably the
prime mover, behind the erection and maintenance of the Jubilee
Tower passed away on 25 February 1855. His eldest son, Lloyd, who

55
D C Castledine, ‘Restoration of the Jubilee Tower on Moel Famau’ in The Annual Report of the
County Archivist (Mold; Clwyd County Council, 1980) p. 25.
56
William Davis, Hand-Book of the Vale of Clwyd: A Reprint of the 1856 Edition (Mold; Clwyd County
Council, 1988) pp. 165-69.
57
Undated. ‘Moel Famau: List of Subscriptions for the Purpose of Putting the Tower into a State of
Repair.’ Ruthin Gaol. DRO DD/WY/6851.
58
Undated. ‘Moel Famau: List of Subscriptions for the Purpose of Building a Visitors Room and Shed
for Horses, and for Repairing the Mountain Road.’ Ruthin Gaol. DRO DD/WY/6851.
59
John Hicklin, Excursions in North Wales: A Complete Guide to the Tourist [. . .] (London; Whittaker
Co., 1847) p. 172.
 28

became the 3rd Baron, succeeded him.60 In 1856 he put the Moel
Famau allotments up for sale at an auction held at the Wynnstay
Hotel, Wrexham – formerly the Eagles Inn where the resolution to
erect the tower had been carried on 1 October 1812. John Catherall
of Mold bought them for £2000.61 Perhaps it was the demise of
George Kenyon that led to further neglect of the Jubilee Tower,
already noted as being ‘in a very dilapidated state’ in 1850 despite
the repairs carried out only a few years previously.62 During the
winter of 1855 one of the corners was further damaged by a storm,63
though a guidebook published in 1861 merely noted ‘a pyramidical
column 150 feet in height’ and failed to note any damage.64
Writing in 1885, Edwards concluded ‘[. . .] that if the
building had been periodically inspected, and any incipient
deterioration attended to, it, perhaps, might to this day have braved
the elements.’65
That it failed to do so was then, probably, a combination of
neglect and the inherent unfitness of the vernacular techniques used
to construct it. Though there have been some differences of opinion
as to when it actually happened, it seems fairly conclusive that the
structure suffered a catastrophic failure between one and two o’clock
on the afternoon of 28 October 1862 (see below).66 The extent of the
damage also varies between accounts, the Caernarvon Herald of 1
November stating ‘about two thirds of the obelisk, or forty yards
[36.5 metres] of the upper portion, fell to the ground, probably from
the effects of the severe storm of wind and rain, which has visited us
lately.’ The North Wales Chronicle of the same date goes further,
somewhat exaggeratingly claiming that the Tower ‘has now only the
appearance of a carelessly piled heap of stones (Picture 6-7).’67

60
See: http://www.thepeerage.com/p1813.htm#i18123
61
Edwards. pp. 17-18. ‘Sale particulars of Moel Famau Tenement’ 1856. Ruthin Gaol: DRO
DD/WY/6213.
62
Parry. p. 416.
63
Davis. pp. 165-69.
64
Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in North Wales with a Travelling Map (London; John Murray,
1861) p. 61.
65
Edwards. pp. 42-3.
66
Edwards. pp. 44, 46. Howell. pp. 337, 341. n. 36.
67
Both papers are quoted in Edwards. pp. 44-45.
 29

That nobody was injured during the collapse seems fortunate,

as there were several persons in the vicinity, the day being calm.68
The Caernarvon Herald reported that the ‘Vale of Clwyd Harriers in
full cry, followed by a numerous field, had just passed’ and that ‘a
party of excursionists were on the mountain.’ It also stated that ‘a
lady and a gentleman had not left the passage a minute when the
column fell.’69 This is the only mention that I have been able to
locate of there being a passage under the monument, indicating that
the doorways at the base were not all decorative. Harrison’s design at
The Salt Museum clearly shows an interior space through at least one
of the doors, and a recently taken video demonstrates that at least one
of them did allow access into a passage under the structure.70
The mention of the Vale of Clwyd Harriers is what allowed
Edwards to calculate the date, as he informed the Denbighshire Free
Press in 1887:

I have discovered the exact date upon which the tower fell. The
reports of the event published at the time in the local papers gave
different days. In the Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald, however, it
was stated that at the time of the fall the Vale of Clwyd Harriers, in
full cry, had just passed. Now, in that paper of 25 October 1862, the
following remarkable advertisement appeared:
“The Vale of Clwyd Hariers (sic), Captain Price, will met on
Tuesday October 28, at Llangynhafal Village.”
‘Hariers’ no doubt is a misprint for Harriers; and it may be
accepted as a fact, that the tower fell on the day last mentioned.71

There were those who were not sorry to see the demise of the
structure, and one such wrote to the Wrexham Advertiser shortly after
the collapse with some asperity:

I see by your paper that the Moel Famau Jubilee Tower has been
blown down by the wind. I am very glad of it. It was an unsightly
object as a work of art, and in bad taste as a tribute of respect to a

68
Howell. p. 341. n. 7.
69
Edwards. p. 44.
70
http://www.truveo.com/Moel-Fammau-Jubilee-Tower/id/1335369290
71
Letter from R J Edwards to Denbighshire Free Press. Dated only 1887. NLW MSS 2108B.
 30
monarch who never did Wales any good. Thackeray has built
George [III] a monument upon paper, which did not cost the country
£6,00072 – which no wind can blow down – and which if not very
respectful to the King, has the merit of being lifelike and true.73 Let us
have no further prostitution of Welsh virtue at such a shrine. Wales, if
left to herself, can afford to jog along without the patronage of “the
Georges.” If Moel Famau Tower is to be rebuilt, let it be as a
monument to Llewelyn.74

The poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, whilst resident at St Beuno’s

Jesuit College from 1874 to 1877, inspected the summit with the
ruins of the tower. He related the visit in a letter to his mother dated
2 March 1876:

[. . .] a party of us set out for Moel Famau, the highest of the hills
bounding the valley and distant as the crow flies about nine miles.
There stands on it what remains of the Jubilee Tower erected in
honour of George III’s 50th year of royalty, an ugly and trumpery
construction, makebelieve-massive, but so frail that it was blown
over by the gale that wrecked the Royal Charter,75 and it cumbers
the hilltop and interrupts the view.76

Restoration

There were to be several attempts to resurrect the structure over the

next century or so, particularly upon the lead up to Queen Victoria’s
Golden Jubilee in 1887.77 Nothing came of these, but in 1904 the
dilapidated state of the ruins, and the danger these posed to members
72
This figure, though it seems to have become generally accepted, is almost certainly too high. The real
cost of erecting the tower is now impossible to compute, and there are several differing versions of
subscription lists.
73
William Makepeace Thackeray, The Four Georges (London; Smith, Elder, 1861).
74
Letter, dated 4 November 1862, from ‘Old Wales,’ London, to the editor of the Wrexham Advertiser.
NLW MSS 2108B.
75
Hopkins was mistaken, the Royal Charter, a 2,700 ton steam and sailing ship bound for Liverpool,
was lost off Moelfre on the island of Anglesey on the night of 25-26 October 1859. See: Robert
Williams (Ed), Shipwreck!: Charles Dickens and the Royal Charter (Porthaethwy; Magma, 1997).
76
Claude Colleer Abbott (Ed.), Further Letters Of Gerard Manley Hopkins [. . .] (Oxford; Oxford
University Press, 1938) p. 137.
77
‘Towards the end of 1885 a movement was made to obtain funds for its restoration, to commemorate
in 1887 the Jubilee of Queen Victoria. For lack of support the project was abandoned. Ruthin 1918.’
Note by R J Edwards in NLW MSS 2108B.
 31

of the public who visited them, prompted one of the local landowners
to write to Edward Stafford Howard, Commissioner of Woods,
Forests and Land Revenues. According to Algernon Potts, a
descendant of the Henry Potts who had provided money and stone
for the 1846 repairs, of Glan-yr-Afon Hall in Llanferres:78

[. . .] [a] portion of the mountain is on my estate, and my keepers tell

me it [the Jubilee Tower] is in a dangerous state, a fact which I know
myself. This mountain is a great resort of holiday people and the
base of [the] column is usually climbed upon by them. I fear there will
someday be a serious if not fatal accident there and as the tower is
on Crown Land, I write this to call your attention to its state. If I might
be allowed to suggest any means of warning people, I think bills in
English and Welsh posted in different parts on the base calling
attention to its dangerous state would do. Of course you may think of
a better plan. It is a great pity that the many attempts to get
subscriptions to restore it have failed; even now a shelter might be
made out of the stones there to perpetuate the original idea [. . .]79

Contemporary photographs show that Potts was correct in his

appreciation of the dangers (Picture 6). Potts’ letter did the rounds of
the officials at the Office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues. One
of these opined that whilst ‘an area of 1 acre around the tower was
resolved out of the conveyance’ in 1811 the Crown had not had
‘anything to do with the erection of the monument - and it seems to
be a proper case for some local authority to attend to with the
permission of the crown so far as it is affected.’80 Another civil
servant, who annotated the memorandum as follows, continued this
theme:

The remains of this Jubilee Tower is a landmark I know well. It

appears that if the crown puts up any warning notices, the crown
then takes a position of undesirable responsibility. The place is an

78
Algernon Potts was appointed as a Magistrate for Flintshire in 1893. According to the census he was
‘living on his own means’ at Glan yr Afon Hall, together with his wife, son, two daughters, a governess
and four servants in 1901. Coincidentally Glan-yr-Afon Hall had also been designed by Thomas
Harrison. Edward Hubbard, Clwyd: Denbighshire and Flintshire (London; Penguin, 1996) p. 58.
79
Letter of 19 April 1904. National Archives; CRES 49/2675 336298.
80
Minute by ‘G B’ of 20 April 1904. National Archives; CRES 49/2675 336298.
 32
open space and if there is danger to excursionists I agree that the
local authority is the proper body to put up notices, with the consent
of the crown as owners of the site. The tower is not an ancient
monument of any great interest, and I think the department should
refrain from doing anything indicative of claiming or supervising it.81

No reply to Algernon Potts appears to have survived, but there is a

draft of a letter to P Harding Roberts, Clerk to Holywell Rural
District Council, from Charles E Howlett, a senior official, in the
National Archives. This makes plain that it was the local authority
that should assume responsibility for the matter:

I am directed by Mr E Stafford Howard to state that he has received

a letter explaining that the base of this tower which is all that remains
of a column erected to commemorate the 50th year of the reign of
King Geo. III is in a dangerous condition and noting that this is a
great resort of holiday people and that it is feared that some accident
may happen there.
From the Ordnance survey map it appears that the building
is situated at the junction of the three parishes of Cilcain,
Llangynhafal, and Llanbedr Dyffryn Clwyd, the greater portion being
in the parish of Cilcain, this latter parish Mr Howard believes is within
the district of the Holywell Rural District Council and he will be glad
to know whether the council consider that the statement that the
structure is dangerous is well founded and if so whether they could
think it well to have some notices put up warning of the fact. So far
as this department is concerned there would be no objection to the
putting up such notices in the parish of Cilcain. The land immediately
adjacent to the tower and perhaps part of the site of that erection
appear to have formed part of an old allotment to the crown under
the Cilcain enclosure act.
When the rest of that allotment was sold to Lord Kenyon in
1811 the area around the tower was excluded from the sale, but the
crown appears to have had nothing to do with the erection of the
tower.82

81
Annotation by ‘W H More.’ National Archives; CRES 49/2675 336298.
82
Draft of Letter from Charles E Howlett to P Harding Roberts 12 May 1904. National Archives; CRES
49/2675 336298.
 33

The council considered this letter on the 27 May, and the status of
the ruins as outlined above appears to have been accepted. A reply
was despatched on the same date to that effect:

I am directed by the Rural District Council to acknowledge the receipt

of your letter hereon of the 12 [May 1904] which was considered at
their meeting today, and in reply hereto to state that their inspector
has been instructed to examine the tower, and if necessary to put up
warning signs.83

An account of the meeting and the decision arrived at was printed in

the 30 May edition of The Manchester Guardian. This reported that a
discussion took place regarding the restoration of the tower, in which
the Clerk remarked that it was ‘worthy of restoration, and it was a
pity steps were not taken in the matter.’ The representative from
Caerwys was of similar opinion and considered that ‘Denbighshire
should join Flintshire in the necessary work, as two-thirds of the
tower was in Denbighshire.’84
Whether warning signs were erected or not is unknown, but
what is certain is that nothing was done to restore or otherwise
improve the site, despite several abortive proposals, for around 66
years, during which time the ruins continued to crumble (Picture 8).
It was not until 1970 that a more or less private ad-hoc group,
formed from amongst the ranks of the Denbigh and Flint Branch of
the Country Landowners Association – the direct, though now
politically neutered, descendants of the squirearchy that had caused
the tower to be raised in the first place - began to solicit funds and
assistance to tidy up the site and secure the remains from further
deterioration.
Thanks to a number of corporate and personal contributors,
some ‘200 tons of sand, aggregate, cement and water’ were carried
up to the summit, where ‘hundreds of tons of fallen masonry’ were
moved and access ramps created at each corner. The remaining
83
Letter from P Harding Roberts, Clerk to Holywell Rural District Council, to E Stafford Howard. 27
May 1904. National Archives; CRES 49/2675 336298.
84
‘The Moel Fammau Jubilee Tower; Dilapidated and Dangerous.’ The Manchester Guardian 30 May
1904.
 34

original walls were repointed and strengthened where necessary and

four stainless steel plane tables, supplying visitor information, were
installed.85
This undoubtedly long overdue exercise resulted in the
appearance of the structure that crowns Moel Famau to this day.
Indeed, though he would no doubt have characterised the original
structure as ‘a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and
elegant friend’ the renovations undertaken in 1970 deservedly won
the Prince of Wales Countryside Award for that year.
Moel Famau and the Jubilee Tower of King George III, or at
least the restored remnant of the latter, now form the centrepiece of
Moel Famau Country Park, an area of some 800 hectares (1800
Acres) within the Clwydian Range. This area constitutes an
outstanding example of what can be achieved in terms of making the
countryside accessible to all. A visit to any part of it is more than
worthwhile, and especially to the summit of Moel Famau on a fine
day. Indeed, few would now agree with Hopkins that the ruins
‘cumber the hilltop and interrupt the view.’ On the contrary, they are
now an integral part of it, whilst the view is, without doubt, truly a
wonder to behold.

85
Edwards. p. 52.
 35

Bibliography
Documents

Cheshire Record Office, Chester.

Thomas Harrison Collection, Other drawings. Design for Moel Fammau
monument (watercolour) No Date. ZCR 73/52.
Denbighshire Record Office, Ruthin Gaol.
List of subscribers to Jubilee Tower on Moel Famau. [1811] DRO DD/WY/5742.
Reminder for promised subscription to Jubilee Tower. [1811] DRO
DD/DM/1025/2.
List of subscriptions for repairing Jubilee Tower. [19th century] DRO
DD/WY/6851.
Newspaper cutting concerning Moel Fammau tower. [1962] DRO DD/DM/739/14.
Country Quest article on Moel Famau Tower. [1965] DRO NTD/407/2 27.
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‘Moel Famau: List of Subscriptions for the Purpose of Building a Visitors Room
and Shed for Horses, and for Repairing the Mountain Road.’ DRO DD/WY/6851.
Reminder for promised subscription to Jubilee Tower. DRO DD/DM/1025/2.
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FLINTSHIRE: Cilcen: Moel Famma Jubilee Tower 1904. CRES 49/2675
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Internet

Samuel Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary

http://www.british-istory.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=47842
The Clwydian Range: http://www.clwydianrangeaonb.org.uk/text01.asp?PageId=2
Enclosure Acts
http://www.countrylovers.co.uk/places/histlan4.htm
 36
The Marquess of Anglesey's Column
http://www.northwalesattractions.co.uk/Images/Virtual/MofA/MofAHome.html
Thomas Harrison’s Design
http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page3553.asp
Ellis, Megan. Moses Griffith
http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-GRIF-MOS-1747.html
National Library of Wales
Moses Griffith’s Painting
http://www.llgc.org.uk/ardd/pennant/llun29.gif
The Kenyon Family
http://www.thepeerage.com/p1813.htm#i18123
Video of the Tower and passage.
http://www.truveo.com/Moel-Fammau-Jubilee-Tower/id/1335369290

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