Researching her recent post on the Monteath Mausoleum in the Scottish Borders, the Folly Flâneuse chanced upon a mention of a mausoleum at Windlestone, County Durham. Further investigation revealed that the Windlestone and Monteath mausolea are siblings, realised by the same architect and builder, at the same date. Sadly, whilst the Monteath mausoleum has been restored to its former glory, that at Windlestone was demolished late in the 20th century.

NB if you want to catch up on the Monteath Mausoleum read this post first: https://thefollyflaneuse.com/monteath-mausoleum-ancrum-borders/ 

Of the two burial places, the Monteath Mausoleum was the first born, with work commencing in 1864. It is interesting that Sir William chose J. Dick Peddie of Edinburgh as his architect, for although prolific in Scotland the Windlestone mausoleum seems to have been Peddie’s only English commission. Sir William may have been familiar with the plans for the Monteath Mausoleum, possibly from seeing Peddie’s design in the Royal Scottish Academy exhibition in spring 1865. He may also have been familiar with the new banking hall that Peddie had created for the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh. Opened in 1857, the extension to what had been Sir Laurence Dundas’s 18th century mansion in St Andrew’s Square was widely admired. The dome features 120 stars, and smaller versions of the design would soon feature in the plans for the Monteath and Eden mausolea.

Sir William commissioned Peddie to design a ‘chapel-tomb’ in which could rest the remains of his four children who had died in their infancy. In plan the building was cruciform, and like the Monteath structure it was surmounted with a dome pierced with star-shaped openings. Each arm of the cross was terminated with a pediment, that at the entrance being supported by columns. Advertisements were placed to recruit workmen in June 1765 and, as in Scotland, the work was superintended by James Harkness of Hawick, who must have found the commute to Durham somewhat more cumbersome. Tragically for Sir William and Lady Eden, two daughters died just before work began, and 12 year old Blanche and 8 year old Rose were buried together at the parish church in nearby Merrington until the vault was ready.

Peddie’s initial designs show that, as at the Monteath Mausoleum, sculpted angels were to watch over the dead, although at Windelstone there were to be four on the exterior of the building. They do not appear on the updated design of September 1865 and were probably never implemented.

The ‘mortuary chapel’ at Windlestone was consecrated in May 1868 and in July Sir William noted in his diary that ‘during the night the remains of our six dear children’ were moved into the new building from their previous resting places at St Helen’s, St Helen Auckland, and St John the Evangelist, Merrington. In the pediment was carved a child shepherd with his crook, and a small pelican tearing its breast to symbolise paternal piety. An inscription read ‘Ego sum pastor bonus et agnosco oves meas’: ‘I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep’. Sir William himself was interred there on his death in 1873.

Peddie was clearly proud of the building and a sectional view was published in The Builder in 1880. Two years later he showed a work called  ‘Windlestone Mausoleum’ at the Royal Scottish Academy exhibition, current whereabouts unknown.

In 1911 the gardens at Windlestone were in their prime and a later Sir William was praised as an ‘expert in horticulture’ who had created ‘numerous well-planned walks which are edged with beds filled with an astonishing variety of flowering plants’. Such a walk led to the chapel, as seen in the view above. Curiously it does not show the stars in the dome so either the roof  had been replaced, or it was never built to Peddie’s design. No descriptions have yet been found to provide any firm evidence.

Family financial problems, and the toll of the First World War, saw the estate slip into decline soon after the war ended. The most famous member of the family, Anthony Eden who was the British Prime Minster 1955-57, was born at Windlestone in 1897 and remained a frequent visitor. Eden visited his mother in the Dower House there at Christmas 1935, shortly after he had been made Foreign Secretary. They must have discussed the grave family news that Windlestone was to be sold the following year. The chapel and burial ground were exempt from the 1936 sale, but without the family present the mausoleum attracted the wrong kind of attention. In 1954 the building made headlines across Britain when thieves smashed their way into the underground vault. As they escaped with a lead-lined coffin the body of Robert Eden, who had died aged 9 in 1856, was exposed. The thieves, miners aged 21 and 15, escaped but were arrested when the body was discovered. Guilt got the better of the younger of the party and he confessed.

Further ‘disturbing incidents’ led Sir Timothy Eden, Anthony’s brother, to seek permission from the Diocese of Durham to demolish the chapel, which was now ‘almost ruinous’, and seal the vault. The faculty was granted in November 1957 and local builders were given the contract to start work. The memorial plaques were removed, and taken to Sir Timothy’s home in Hampshire for safekeeping, and the lead was stripped from the roof to deter thieves. The door to the vault was then securely sealed. Revisiting late in life the former prime minister Anthony Eden, now 1st earl of Avon, was shocked to see the mausoleum derelict: ‘I looked along the avenue that led to the chapel. Here was frank ruin. The building lay open to the sky…’

In 1983, accepting that the mausoleum remained a target for vandals, and was at risk from the elements, the Eden family began the process of arranging for the coffins to be removed to St Helen’s, Bishop Auckland. It took over a year to get permission from the Church of England, and then the Home Office, and moving the remains was one of the most unusual jobs handled by Sydney Pearson, Manager of the Co-operative Funeral Service of that town. On December 10th 1984 a short service was held at St Helen’s and the remains were reinterred in the churchyard underneath the east window. Lines from Longfellow, which had previously been on a memorial in the chapel, were added to one of the stones marking the graves:

Oh! not in cruelty, not in wrath
The Reaper came that day
An angel visited the green earth
And took the flowers away

The chapel was demolished to ground level soon after. St Helen’s, St Helen Auckland, is now the Eden resting place, and memorial plaques from the mausoleum have been returned to County Durham and can be seen in the porch. The gate piers from the entrance to the chapel, were given to the town of Rushyford by the Eden family, and re-erected at the entrance to the recreation ground on West Chilton Terrace.

The hero of this tale began life in 1787 as Thomas Monteath. By the time he died in 1868 he had taken the name Douglas as a condition of an inheritance, advanced in the military ranks, and been knighted, thus ending his life as General Sir Thomas Monteath Douglas. He had plans to ensure that he would not quickly be forgotten, and had this extraordinary mausoleum constructed.

Driving north on the A68, The Folly Flâneuse had often noted what appeared to be a small summerhouse on a hill, just out of Jedburgh, but she had never found a moment to investigate. Arriving at last, the building turned out to be neither small, nor a summerhouse, but is instead the Monteath Mausoleum, and tucked into the hillside is a monumental entrance, invisible from the road.

The mausoleum was designed by J. Dick Peddie, of eminent Edinburgh architects Peddie and Kinnear, and a design of the ‘mausoleum now being erected’ was exhibited at the exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1865. But Monteath (as he shall be known for brevity) himself is said to have been closely involved in the design and construction, making changes as the build progressed. Having spent 4 decades in India, Monteath would have been familiar with the indigenous burial architecture and this must surely have been an influence on the design, particularly the pierced dome. But Monteath would also have been aware of such a roof much closer to home, for Peddie had recently won great acclaim for his design for a new banking hall for the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh. The design included an amazing dome lit by star shaped openings.

Work on the mausoleum began in 1864, and the local paper reported in March 1865 that ‘a curious and conspicuous addition to our local architecture’ was in the ‘course of erection’. At that date the central chamber, 16 feet wide, had been hollowed out of solid rock by the contractor, Mr Harkness of Hawick. Two months later the paper noted that the mausoleum was to be built 20 feet higher than originally intended.

The site at Gersit Law would have appealed to the soldier Monteath, for it overlooked the spot where the Battle of Ancrum Moor was fought in the 16th century. Along the ridge from the mausoleum is another curiosity which Monteath would have known – Lilliard’s Stone. Legend has it that Lilliard was a diminutive but determined female warrior who fought at the battle between the English and Scots armies:

Fair maiden Lilliard lies beneath this stane
Little was her stature, but muckle was her fame
Upon the English loon she laid monie thumps
And when her legs were cuttit off, she fought upon her stumps.

Monteath died in October 1868 and ‘the massive and handsome mausoleum’ was ready to receive ‘the remains of the distinguished soldier for whom it was erected.’ It was his ‘express wish’ that two lions should guard the entrance and two angels stand watch over his grave.

The building, which ‘commands one of the finest and most extensive views in the south of Scotland’ was already something of a tourist attraction, being a prominent landmark both from the main road and from the railway line. The poet Thomas Davidson gave voice to the late Monteath in ‘And There Will I be Buried’, which includes the lines:

I’ve been happy above ground;
I can ne’er be happy under
Out of gentle Teviot’s sound –
Part us not then, far asunder.

Lay me here where I may see
Teviot around his meadows flowing,
And around and over me
Winds and clouds forever going.

The locals were very proud of the mausoleum and took great offence when Sir George Douglas of Kelso, a writer and poet, criticised the building in an article in The Scotsman newspaper in 1920. Writing as ‘G.D.’, Douglas called the mausoleum a ‘strange barbaric structure’ and pontificated that ‘doubtless the old gentleman’s views on aesthetics were rudimentary.’ He also suggested that it had become known as ‘Monteath’s Aisle, or ‘Monteath’s Folly’.

A reader was quick to defend the ‘finely proportioned and well-executed structure’ and chastised Douglas for giving readers ‘the impression that … the mausoleum is a rather poor affair.’ ‘J.M.’ also dismissed the alternative names as nonsense (and indeed the names do not seem to have been used by anyone but Douglas).

Soon after this exchange trees were allowed to grow around the mausoleum, and it was largely forgotten. It was revealed anew in March 1946 when the timber was felled for the war effort, but although once again a landmark it continued to deteriorate and in 2009 it was placed on the Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland.

The rescue of the structure, under the auspices of The Friends of Monteath Mausoleum, started out in a rather casual manner but culminated in a magnificent restoration. In the organisation’s own words:

‘On a warm summers afternoon in 2014, a group of friends were walking along Lilliars Edge when they came across the derelict and ivy-covered building which had once been the magnificent mausoleum. With little expectation of success they set up a Friends group and campaigned for its restoration, finding to their surprise that everyone thought it was a great idea. The land owners, the local authority and many local and regional groups supported their efforts and, despite some setbacks, the funding was finally secured in 2018 and work began in October of that year. By the Spring of 2019 the building had been fully restored with new glazed stars in the roof, new oak doors and the whole building made fully watertight. Volunteers then took over to tidy the site, paint the 672 metal railings around the perimeter, and install new pathways to improve public access.’

The restored mausoleum was opened to the public on Sunday 7th July 2019. There are occasional open days when members of the Friends are on site to chat to visitors (move fast to be there on 28 & 29 September 10am-4pm). Or, for a small fee you can pick up the key locally and visit during Lothian Estates office hours. There’s more on the Friends and on access here http://friendsofthemonteathmausoleum.org.uk/index.html

The Monteath Mausoleum seems to have inspired another mausoleum, over the border in England. There will be more on that in these pages very soon.

This part of the Borders is rich in follies and curiosities. As well as the mausoleum and Lilliard’s Stone, there is also the Waterloo Monument at Peniel Heugh, also on Lothian Estates land and beautifully maintained, and the Baron’s Folly on Down Law, sadly currently on the Scottish Buildings at Risk Register.

The final word this week goes to Sir George Douglas, he who dared to criticise the Monteath Mausoleum. Although dismissive of the epithet folly as ‘vulgar’, he couldn’t help but wish there was ‘more of such high imaginative “folly” or impulse in the world and rather less of that wisdom which begins and ends with how many beans make five!’

For Peniel Heugh see https://www.lothianestates.co.uk/waterloo-monument

For Baron’s Folly see https://canmore.org.uk/site/56982/down-law-barons-folly

And for Lilliard’s Stone https://canmore.org.uk/site/57010/lilliards-stone-lilliards-edge

UPDATE 27 July 2020: the Friends of Monteath Mausoleum have launched an audio guide which you can download before a visit http://friendsofthemonteathmausoleum.org.uk/find-it/audio-guide.html