Keppel's Column: 115ft Yorkshire tower with links to Wentworth Woodhouse to open to public for first time since 1960s

Keppel’s Column is the biggest of the follies built by the owners of the Wentworth Estate, and stands 15ft taller than Hoober Stand which stands on the opposite side of the valley in South Yorkshire.

It sits four miles away from Woodhouse itself, showing just how vast the estate was.

People remember paying the keeper a penny to go to the top – all 221 steps – for the breathtaking views until it closed in 1962.

However graffiti shows people were still going up into the early 1980s, around the time it went into the ownership of Rotherham Council.

The column continued to deteriorate and ended up on Historic England’s At Risk Register.

But now after many years work, and investment by bodies including Rotherham Council, Fitzwilliam Wentworth Amenity Trust, and The Historic Houses Foundation, it has been repaired and once again is ready to reopen.

Lisa Howarth, Rotherham Council’s museums, arts and heritage manager, says she never tires of the views: “You just feel on top of the world. On a really clear day people have said to us they could see Blackpool or Cleethorpes, which I don’t think you can. But you can see the estate, Meadowhall, Ikea, going towards Sheffield. There is a lot of green space, it shows how green this area is, opposed to it being about industry.

“It’s about showing people we value Rotherham’s heritage. What’s special about places like Keppel’s Column is that they are in the middle of the community – they have this amazing history.

"It’s about the memories of people going up, and creating that in future – rather than it being a monument of disrepair that no one engages with.”

Originally the column was due to feature a statue of the man it honoured – Admiral Keppel, a Royal Navy officer, a Whig politician, and a friend of Charles Watson-Wentworth – right at the top.

Admiral Keppel was judged to have failed when commanding a fleet against the French at the First Battle of Ushant, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War.

He was court-martialled, but acquitted – to the delight of his backers. On October 1, 1780, the monument was unveiled, with the Marquess and his friends on top, and the crowd roaring their approval below.

It’s taken nearly a year to do the actual building work on the column – stonemasons were brought in to repair the weathered stone, new windows were put in, and a new hatch put on the top for weather proofing.

The first tours on September 10 and 11 have already sold out. However there are plans to open it once a month starting in April. People who do come are being asked to respect those living near by and either walk or use public transport.