The palatial mansion of Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham, is set in a landscape ornamented with towers and temples, pyramids and pavilions. One of the earliest is this slim, elegant structure pierced with an arch. Originally an eye-catcher, it later became an object on a drive to the house, but now once more stands alone on a swathe of green in a tranquil corner of the park.

Thomas Watson-Wentworth (1693-1750), created Baron Malton in 1728 (and then Earl of Malton 1734 and 1st Marquess of Rockingham 1746), kept a careful note of expenditure on his estate, and noted improvements in a volume which survives in the family archive. His summary of activity in 1722-1733 included the building of what was then known simply as ‘Obelisk in Lee Wood’, but was later nicknamed ‘the Needle’s Eye’ as apparently the slim arch was thought to resemble the eye of a needle.

The obelisk (remembering that obelisk and pyramid were used interchangeably in the 18th century for any tapering 3 or 4 sided structure) is shown on an engraving of 1728, so must therefore have been built between 1722 and 1728, making it the earliest of the fanciful erections in the vast park. It is contemporary with work on the Baroque west front, and predates the building of the great Palladian east front.

The square plantations of Lee Wood flanked the eye-catcher, and channeled views to the obelisk. One of the series of views of the estate painted for the family in the middle of the 18th century (private collection, not pictured), shows the tapering structure, cut through with a slim arch with woodland to each side. It could therefore only be seen from limited positions, and this is most likely why it was missed by many visitors, and is barely mentioned in contemporary accounts. A rare exception is the agriculturalist writer Arthur Young who visited in 1768  and saw ‘the arch’, which he thought was ‘raised as an object to decorate the view from the Ionic Temple’.

The Ionic Temple sits on the great terrace which was constructed in 1735-6 along the southern edge of the garden. So Young got it a little wrong, as the Needle’s Eye predates the Ionic Temple, but his account does back up contemporary map evidence that there was a vista between the two buildings, now sadly lost.

Towards the end of the 18th century the Needle’s Eye became a feature on a new drive from Rainborough Lodge on the northern edge of the estate (fans of geometry in gardens might be interested to know that Rainborough Lodge, the Needle’e Eye, North Lodge and the Ionic Temple can be linked with a dead straight line). Also known as the Lion Gate, because it features two large … stone lions, the lodge was built to a design by John Carr in the last years of the 18th century. It survives today, although the drive was later abandoned, leaving the obelisk once more as an isolated landscape feature.

By the time the first Ordnance Survey map was published the folly had become known as the ‘Needle’s Eye’, and is marked as such on the 1st series map of 1841. This was a fairly common nickname for structures cut through with an arch in the Victorian period, and was also used for a pyramidal lodge at Nostell Priory (see link below), and Thornhill Lodge at Calverley, both in Yorkshire.

In 1849 a group of excursionists (the name coined for groups taking day trips on the new railways) arrived at Darfield Station. They walked to the Rainborough Lodge, and on up to the ‘Needle’s Eye, an arabesque monument’, and took advantage of the seats inside the arch before exploring Wentworth. The prospectus for their excursion also tells that the pyramid was ‘surmounted by an earl’s coronet’. This description of the Needle’s Eye seems to have been taken from a piece published in the Leeds Mercury a few years earlier, and which remains something of a puzzle. The 1728 view shows it topped by an urn, and a decorative urn can be seen today. Was there once a coronet, or is the article simply mistaken? The mystery remains to be solved.

As ever, a seemingly useless landscape feature needs a good back story. Local legend tells that the building was erected so that the 1st Marquess of Rockingham could prove his boast that he could drive a carriage ‘through the eye of a needle’. Another version has it that guiding a horse and trap through the arch was a right of passage for young apprentices in the stable-yard, hoping to win promotion. No-one knows if there is truth in any of the tales, but they continue to entertain.

The grade II* listed Needle’s Eye is in the care of the Fitzwilliam Wentworth Amenity Trust, and was restored fairly recently. There is full access, courtesy of the trust, via a public footpath from Coaley Lane.

For the mansion and gardens at Wentworth Woodhouse https://wentworthwoodhouse.org.uk

For the follies in the care of the Fitzwilliam Wentworth Amenity Trust see https://wentworthestate.co.uk/visiting/monuments-follies/

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In the 18th century, travellers on the Great North Road were able to enjoy a view of the ‘small neat house’ that was Leases Hall as they passed by in their carriages. Today, it’s not so easy to dawdle and appreciate ones surroundings, as the Great North Road has been superseded by the 6 lanes of the busy A1(M). But if you are quick, you can snatch a glimpse of a small mound which was once topped by a little rotunda.

Leonard Smelt (1725-1800), who inherited Leases Hall in 1755, is remembered as a man who had ‘the honour of being friend to the King’. He was greatly respected at the court of George III where he socialised with the likes of the writers Samuel Johnson and Fanny Burney, the artist Sir Joshua Reynolds (who painted his portrait), and the learned ladies of the Bluestocking Society, including Mrs Delany whose description of Smelt is quoted above.

The estate at Leases was not large (in 1792 it was described as being 139 acres), but Smelt created a small pleasure ground which was much admired by his great friend Elizabeth Montagu, another member of the bluestocking circle. Writing to her husband during a visit in 1767, Mrs Montagu described the ‘neatness & elegance’ of Leases. She noted that there was no ornamental garden, but rather that a grass terrace, edged with a ha-ha, carried a walk around the fields. The walk was ‘nicely kept, & fringed with plantations’ and had a ‘very rich prospect of well cultivated country bounded by distant mountains’. Above all, she admired the ingenuity of the design, which combined the beauty of the perimeter walks with the utility of the lands they enclosed. Smelt himself referred to his estate as his ‘farm’.

The writer Arthur Young visited Leases Hall (which he called The Leases) in 1768 as part of his six months tour of the north of England. Young visited estates to investigate and promulgate improvements in agriculture, and along the way he often recorded his thoughts on mansions and pleasure grounds. After praising Smelt’s farming methods, he described The Leases as ‘a very beautiful ferme ornée’ and admired the situation and prospect, concluding that ‘Mr Smelt has ornamented it with much taste’.

The history of Bedale was recorded in a curious manner by Robert Hird (1768-1841). Hird was a shoemaker who spent his whole life in Bedale, not far from Leases Hall. In his later years he wrote a history of the town, The Annals of Bedale, entirely in rhyme. Writing of Lady Stapleton of Aiskew, he goes on to name Smelt as the builder of a little temple on a mound in the park at Leases:

Her Ladyship knew Leonard Smelt.
He liv’d at Leases hall,
This Squire the Rotunda built;
Which we the Mount now call.

From which there is the finest view
Of any near the road,
Mowbray vale, you may see it through,
And view where armies trode.

Although Hird wrote that the rotunda had been erected by Smelt, neither Montagu nor Young mention the temple and the first contemporary account is not until 1779, when a traveller noted that ‘upon a small eminence a pretty Rotunda stands upon Pillars’. A designer for the temple and pleasure ground is not known (Smelt himself may have been responsible), but there were plenty of local sources of inspiration: just across the Great North Road was Hornby Castle, where Smelt socialised with the family. Here landscape gardener Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, and architect John Carr, were working for the Earl of Holderness in the 1760s. Holderness was advised by his chaplain, William Mason, best known as a garden designer and author of the epic poem The English Garden. Also close by was Kirby Fleetham, sold to William Aislabie of Studley by the Smelt family early in the 18th century, where Aislabie had created a small pleasure ground.

Smelt sold Leases to Randolph Marriott in 1769 and the estate subsequently changed hands a number of times. Despite various alterations, the house (grade II) and grounds are largely as Smelt left them, although some of the perimeter walk has been lost to road-widening.

A very lovely, leafy, bridle path leads up to The Mount, but the ‘pretty Rotunda’ is no longer there. The old photograph, sadly undated, seems to be the only surviving image of the temple in situ at Leases.

But… as the opening photo hints, there is some good news, in fact some very good news. In 1933 Leases Hall was offered for sale by auction. The details described the elegant hall and gardens and the ‘elevated mound surmounted by a circular stone structure’. The estate failed to meet the reserve, but the following year it was sold by private treaty. The purchaser was Alfred Drewett Chaytor (1901-1977), whose family also owned Croft Hall, in the pretty village of Croft-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, close to the border with County Durham. Sometime around 1940 the rotunda was moved from Leases to Croft Hall, where it remains today.

By the time of the move the temple was in a poor condition. The stonework had suffered from erosion by the elements, and the JT who carved his initials into a column, as clearly seen in the old photograph, had set a precedent: the columns are now covered in graffiti, including a large caricature, dating from the early years of the 20th century (without condoning such vandalism, there is something fascinating about the social history that the graffiti records: who were the people with the time to carve intricate names, dates and figures onto the columns? Why were they there?). The roof was missing, no doubt stripped of its lead some years earlier, but happily the cast stone company Haddonstone was able to supply a modern fibreglass replacement. The little temple is a real charmer, and has a secure future at Croft Hall.

Croft Hall is strictly private but opens annually as part of the National Gardens Scheme. Watch out for a date in 2022.

For more on Hird’s Annals of Bedale see this excellent blog post by the team at the North Yorkshire County Record Office https://nycroblog.com/2020/10/28/hirds-annals/

Elizabeth Montagu’s letters are an amazing resource and this project will see them made available online https://www.elizabethmontagunetwork.co.uk

This post would not have been possible without the collaboration of Gail Falkingham and Alison Brayshaw. Thanks team.