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The octagonal Jubilee Tower (officially called Darwen Tower) on Darwen Hill overlooking the town of Darwen in Lancashire, England, was completed in 1898 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. It also commemorated the victory of the local people for the right of access to the surrounding moors. It was opened to the public on 24 September 1898.
The tower is 85 feet (25.9 m) in height; Darwen Hill (also known as Beacon Hill) is 1,220 feet (370 metres) above sea-level. Walkers can climb to the top of the tower via the internal staircase to see views of North Yorkshire, Morecambe Bay, Blackpool Tower, Cumbria, the Isle of Man, North Wales, Derbyshire, elsewhere in Lancashire, and surrounding moorland.
Packmen, pedlars, farmers and labourers used tracks and moorland paths to go about their business, but in the 19th century landowners began blocking ancient rights of way.[1] In the 1870s the Lord of the manor of Over Darwen – and absentee landlord – the Reverend William Arthur Duckworth blocked paths so as to prevent public access to the moor. Game-shooting rights were lucrative and Duckworth did not wish to have his land devalued by its use by the public exercising its rights of way.[2]
William Thomas Ashton, manager of Eccles Shorrock's mines at Dogshaw Clough and Entwistle Moss, used the moorland footpaths to deliver coal to farmers and other customers. Whenever Duckworth's gamekeepers blocked the paths Ashton cleared them. Others took up the up the cause, joined by hundreds of local people. Eventually, after eighteen years of bloody skirmishes, lawsuits and protracted negotiations, Duckworth and his lessee of the shooting rights, a Mr Ashworth, reached a compromise with the campaigners. Nearly 300 acres of moorland passed into public possession in September 1896.[3]
A large procession, formed of the Town Council, friendly and trade societies, police and fire brigades, and the Blackburn and Darwen Volunteers, accompanied by six brass bands, marched with waving banners to the top of the hill. Speeches were delivered by Ashton's son (his father having died in 1894), the local MP, the mayor and others. About 15,000 people were assembled, and after the moors had been formally taken over by the council a bonfire was lit, followed by a display of fireworks.[4]
Soon after the land was in public possession the suggestion of a building a tower there was adopted. Councillor Robert Shorrock, chairman of the parks committee, formally proposed at a town meeting that the tower be built and more than £1,500 was soon raised by public subscription.[3]
The council insisted that the main contractors should all be local to Darwen. The subsequent competition for the design of the tower was won by David Ellison, an employee in the borough surveyor's office. His design was later modified by his senior, the borough surveyor, Robert William Smith-Saville.[5] The builder was R. J. Whalley of Darwen.[5] The stone for the tower was donated by Duckworth,[5] who performed the opening ceremony on 24 September 1898 in front of large crowds and local dignitaries.[6] The eastern and western pediments of the tower carry commemorative plaques. The eastern one reads:
The western plaque records the names of the mayor and local dignitaries involved in the building of the tower. It names Smith-Saville as architect, and omits mention of Ellison, the original designer.[7]
The tower is described by Pevsner as "a stumpy, awkward piece",[8] and by another author as "a phallic object … for all the world like something on the launching pad at Cape Canaveral",[9] but praised by the BBC as "a majestic spectacle with an impressive weather-vane".[3]
塔の高さは85フィート（25.9メートル）で、ダーウェン・ヒル（ビーコン・ヒルとも呼ばれる）は海抜1,220フィート（370メートル）です。ハイカーは内部の階段を使って塔の頂上まで登ることができます。理論上は、ノース・ヨークシャー、モアカム湾、ブラックプール・タワー、カンブリア、マン島、北ウェールズ、ダービーシャー、ランカシャーの他の地域の景色が見えるはずですが、荒野の霧で視界が遮られることがあります。[ 2 ]
1972年、この塔は政府によってグレードII指定建造物として保護された。その指定理由には次のように記されている。
この塔は、存続を脅かす幾度かの危機を乗り越えてきた。第二次世界大戦中、敵の爆撃機にとって有用な目印になる恐れがあるとして、取り壊すべきだという提案があった。[ 3 ] 1947年には、塔の頂上にあった元の木造の小塔が強風で吹き飛ばされ、建物の取り壊しが議論された。[ 3 ]ドームは1971年まで交換されず、その年にグラスファイバー製のドームで再び塔が覆われた。[ 11 ]
グラスファイバー製のドームは、2010年11月11日の強風で吹き飛ばされた。ダーウェンのWECグループが製作した粉体塗装のステンレス鋼製の代替ドームは、35,000ポンド以上かかり、2012年1月13日にヘリコプターで吊り上げられて設置された。[ 11 ] 2020年代には、地元のキャンペーンにより、将来の世代のために塔を修復し、耐候性を高めるための資金約30万ポンドが確保された。町のロータリークラブは、寄付を促し、意識を高めるために、ダーウェンのマーケットホールに塔のレゴモデルを製作し、[ 5 ]政府は25万ポンドを拠出した。[ 12 ]