What could it be?
The first time I drove along Tower Lane, back in 1988, heading for the A15, Sleaford Road, I saw it – a great stone tower with, seemingly, no reason for its existence. I mused over what it could be – it was too tall for a church tower, too small for a castle ruin and unlike most of the other ancient ruins and monuments that I had learnt to recognise in the countryside.
Off I went to the library and there found the history of what I now know to be the remains of Dunston Pillar. It has a fascinating history. Sir Francis Dashwood, perhaps better known as the founder of the Hellfire Club, built it in 1751. In 1745 Sir Francis married the widow of Sir Richard Ellis and brought her to live at his Lincolnshire home at Nocton Hall. The nearby Nocton Heath was not farmed at that time and the Sleaford road had not yet been built – the Heath was such a difficult place for travellers to cross that in 1751 Dashwood built Dunston Pillar and placed a great octagonal lantern on top of it to serve as a land lighthouse to guide travellers over the heath. The pillar was nearly 30 metres high (that's 92 feet in old money) with a 4.5 metre lantern on its top. It had a spiral staircase (now gone), which led up to a balustraded gallery around the lantern. Inscribed on the pillar's sides were the distances to London (126 miles) and Lincoln (6 miles). The lantern was regularly lit until 1788, but by then the construction of a new road had made it unnecessary. It was used for the last time in 1808 and fell from the pillar during a storm a year later.
George III replaces the lantern
In 1810 a 15-foot high statue of George III was erected in the place of the lantern. The statue was given by the Duke of Buckingham, in celebration of the King's Golden Jubilee. It was made of a type of artificial stone invented in 1769 by a lady called Eleanor Coade and known as Coade Stone. Almost anything that could be carved from natural stone was made in Coade Stone and our statue of George III may be one of the tallest pieces ever created in Coade Stone.
George stood peacefully on his pillar until the Second World War when his great height became his undoing! The pillar is close to both Waddington and Coleby Heath airfields and George was unceremoniously pushed off his perch and the pillar was chopped down to a mere 10 metres high, because of the danger to low flying Lancasters! The statue broke into fragments, which were put into storage. They are now in the cellars of the Victorian prison, in Lincoln Castle.
The head and shoulders of George were reconstructed and put on display in the Castle grounds some years ago, but no one knew the formula of Coade Stone so it was not possible to repair all the shattered statue. The Coade Stone factory had closed in 1843 and in the ensuing years, the recipe for this remarkable material was lost. It is, in fact a fired ceramic – a type of stoneware.
Coade Stone
All that has now changed now, as art conservator, Christopher Cleere, has found a way to make Coade Stone again, and it may be possible to repair our George III. The Peter Hodgkinson Charitable Trust have given a grant which will enable a full survey of the surviving fragments of the statue to be made in order to work out which parts need to be remodelled. It should now be possible to calculate how much it would cost to restore King George. And who knows, perhaps the Heritage Lottery Fund might agree to help us do it. But where would we put him?. There's really only one place that he ought to go, and that's back on Dunston Pillar, but that would depend on the RAF (Waddington is still a very active airfield), Blankeney Estates (the modern owners of Dunston Pillar), Lincolnshire County Council (who have the fragments) and the Listed Building authorities. He could go in Lincoln Castle, or even in the grounds of the Lawn, except that he is three times life size and is meant to be seen from a great distance, so it would be a bit strange to put him at ground level.
Anyway, we are still a long way off knowing whether the restoration is possible, but Chris Cleere and his assistant are surveying the statue fragments in June and we will then know what is possible and what it will cost. The project is being led by County Councillor John Marriot, but if anyone wants to know more or has any information to offer on King George or Dunston Pillar, please contact David Start at the Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire on 01529 461499.
Dave Start
Director, Heritage Lincolnshire
