Formerly standing within the landscape setting of Windelstone Hall, the Eden Mausoleum was cruciform in plan with a handsome dome and cupola rising over the central crossing. The pedimented entrance front was supported on ionic columns with a sculptural register to the tympanum depicting a child shepherd with his crook, and a small pelican tearing at its breast, a symbol of paternal piety. An inscription read ‘Ego sum pastor bonus et agnosco oves meas’: ‘I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep’. Early plans for the mausoleum suggest that the dome was to have been pierced with glazed lights (in the form of stars) as at the Monteath Douglas Mausoleum, at Roxburgh, Scotland (also by Peddie) and with four sculptural angels at its base, though these do not appear to have been executed.
J. Dick Peddie
Neo-Classical
--
1868
The mausoleum was commissioned by Sir William Eden to house the remains of his six children, four of which had died in infancy. Built to the designs of J. Dick Peddie of Edinburgh, who had also designed the Monteath Douglas Mausoleum, at Roxburgh, Scotland, the chapel/mausoleum was constructed under the superintendence of James Harkness of Hawick. The remains of Sir William Eden was laid to rest alongside his beloved children in 1873.
The most famous member of the family, Anthony Eden Prime Minister 1955-57, was born at Windelstone Hall in 1897.
The Eden estate at Windelstone was sold off in 1936 and in the family’s absence the mausoleum fell victim to vandalism and neglect. In 1954 Widelstone made headlines across Britain when thieves smashed their way into the mausoleum and desecrated the crypt, exposing the remains of Robert Eden, who had died aged 9 in 1856. Shortly after this, the mausoleum, already now in a semi-ruinous state was stripped of its lead roof and sealed from further acts of vandalism, with its memorial plaques removed to the Church of St Helen at nearby Bishop Auckland. The mausoleum was demolished in 1983, after suffering further acts of vandalism, with the remains of those interred within removed to St Helen’s.
Demolished 1983.
Anon. (2019). Windlestone Mausoleum, Rushyford, County Durham. Available: https://thefollyflaneuse.com/windlestone-mausoleum-rushyford-county-durham/. Last accessed 19th December 2019.
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Windelstone Hall
Rushyford
County Durham
England