Obelisks and Obfuscation: Rethinking Cook’s Monument

Three heavily-laden walkers trudge away from Captain Cook’s Monument towards Gribdale. One of them had, moments earlier, stood on the railings and appeared to kiss the obelisk. Quite what prompted this act of reverence is unclear, but it brought to mind an article I once read claiming the monument is less about Cook and more about Freemasonry and Enlightenment ideals. Yes, really.

It took a minor archaeological dig through the black hole of my hard drive, but I eventually found the piece. It was written by the local poet Trev Teasdel and titled, without a hint of irony, Captain Cook’s Monument, Easby Moor: The Mystery Behind it!. Teasdel sets out to probe the meaning and origin of the Easby Moor obelisk and wanders into territory more familiar to readers of The Da Vinci Code than any history book. Fun, certainly. Credible, perhaps less so¹Teasdel, Trev. “Captain Cook’s Monument, Easby Moor: The Mystery Behind it!” (First published on Glass Orange Vox & Typepad 2008) Reviewed (Feb 2013) in Saltburn Magazine Coastal View and Moors News p 33 by Holly Bush..

The whole thing began when Teasdel was researching George Markham Tweddell, a nineteenth-century printer from Stokesley, Freemason, and writer of symbol-laden poetry. Teasdel notes the influence of the French Enlightenment on the design of public spaces in Paris, where Egyptian-style monuments—pyramids, obelisks, and the like—were in vogue among Masonic circles and the self-declared rational elite.

Then comes what Teasdel calls a coincidence. The Easby Moor obelisk went up in 1827—the same year a 3,500-year-old Egyptian obelisk was shipped to Paris for the Place de la Concorde. Paris gets a relic from Thebes; North Yorkshire gets a pointy tribute to a sailor. Apparently, that is enough to raise suspicion. Tweddell, born three years before the Cook monument was built, later wrote poems linking Cook to pyramids and obelisks, which Teasdel sees as more than poetic flourish.

Digging further, we learn that plans for a Cook memorial date back to 1787. Early suggestions included placing a pyramid or even a pagoda on Roseberry Topping. These came from Reverend John Brewster—pen name “Cleveland,” and, perhaps inevitably, another Freemason. Whether the Egyptian and Oriental suggestions were driven by esoteric symbolism or just fashionable whims is unclear, though the consistency is noted with interest.

As for Cook himself, direct proof of his Masonic membership is conspicuously absent. That does not deter the theory. Teasdel points to contemporaries such as Joseph Banks and Francis Holman, both with Masonic ties, and mentions that the ship’s crew held Masonic meetings. The local Lodge of Philanthropy also had fingers in various pies, including the monument’s creation.

Of course, Robert Campion, the man who actually paid for and built the thing in 1827, may have simply wanted something tall, imposing, and easy to maintain. Obelisks were all the rage and relatively cheap. But that explanation is rather too tidy for Teasdel’s liking.

He concludes that the monument is not just a memorial but a beacon of Enlightenment and Masonic thought dressed up as local heritage. Perhaps. Or perhaps it is just what it looks like: a stone tower to mark the achievements of a man from Marton who ended up on the far side of the world. Take your pick.

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  Teasdel, Trev. “Captain Cook’s Monument, Easby Moor: The Mystery Behind it!” (First published on Glass Orange Vox & Typepad 2008) Reviewed (Feb 2013) in Saltburn Magazine Coastal View and Moors News p 33 by Holly Bush.