Peel Monument

A conspicuous landmark, 128 feet/144 feet/300 feet high, the Peel Tower at Holcombe is one of two monuments erected in the Bury area in memory of Sir Robert Peel, Prime Minister of Britain 1841-1846 and the man responsible for effecting the repeal of the Corn Laws. Peel, who was born in Bury in 1788, had died in 1850 as a result of a riding accident in Hyde Park. The tower is said to have been designed by the members of the Monument Committee: Messrs Grant, Ashton, Knowles, Gorton and possibly Cunliffe and was erected using grit stone quarried from the nearby hillside (seemingly without the permission of the landowner) at a cost of £1,000 raised through public appeal. It opened on Thursday 9 September 1852, the Manchester Guardian reporting:

The monument is plain substantial column with the word "Peel" inscribed in large letters on one side. It was designed by its construction to attract attention from a distance rather than to afford a specimen of architectural beauty on a near inspection. Standing upon an eminence and being itself forty-eight yards high, it affords from its summit on a clear day, a very extensive prospect. [Manchester Guardian September 1852]

Reference           Builder 25 September 1852 Page 612
Reference           Manchester Guardian 11 September1852 page 9
Reference           Terry Wyke, ‎Harry Cocks: Public Sculpture of Greater Manchester