Somerset Monument, Hawkesbury Upton

The Somerset Monument is the tall stone tower beside the lane to Hillesley, just north of Hawkesbury Upton, on the Cotswold Edge in the South Cotswolds, about 5 miles south of Wotton-under-Edge. Lewis Vulliamy built it in 1846 in memory of General Lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset, who fought at Waterloo. It stands on the Cotswold Way and is listed Grade II*.

History

Lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset was a son of the fifth Duke of Beaufort, whose family seat at Badminton lies a few miles to the south. He was a soldier, and he served with distinction at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. He died in 1842, and four years later the tower went up on the hill above Hawkesbury, to the design of the architect Lewis Vulliamy.

At risk

The monument was listed in 1983. It was made a conservation area of its own in 1981, alongside Hawkesbury Upton and Hawkesbury village below, and in 1999 the three were joined into one. Historic England added it to its Heritage at Risk register in 2024, rating its condition poor, with slow decay and no solution agreed, and gives its ownership as private.

What to see

The tower is about 30m high: a slightly tapering square shaft of ashlar, its sides shallowly panelled, with a coat of arms on the south-west face and the doorway, under a pediment, on the north-east. Look at the top. A platform on stone brackets carries a railing hung with chains and the portcullis, the badge of the Beauforts. Above it is an open stage with two round-headed openings on each side under a cornice, then a crown of strapwork that the listing likens to the Chinese style, and finally a cross on an orb. The monument's lodge, built in the same year of coursed rubble under a Cotswold slate roof, is listed Grade II with its walls.

Visiting

The monument is seen from outside. When we checked in October 2026 we found no published opening of the tower, and it is on the Heritage at Risk register, so admire it from the lane. There are no facilities at the monument; Hawkesbury Upton has a pub, the Beaufort Arms, and a community-owned shop with a post office.

Getting there

The tower is just outside Hawkesbury Upton on the road to Hillesley. There is no car park; park considerately in the village and walk up. By bus, Eurocoaches' Y8 runs between Yate, Hawkesbury Upton and Wotton-under-Edge, seven or eight times a day on weekdays and about every two hours on Saturdays, with no Sunday service.

On foot, the Cotswold Way passes the monument at the end of its stage from Wotton-under-Edge to Hawkesbury Upton, 7.4 miles (11.9km) by Alderley, Lower Kilcott and Newark Park, and leaves it on the next stage south to Tormarton past Horton Court and Old Sodbury.

Nearby

South along the Cotswold Way, the ramparts of Horton Camp and Sodbury Camp are two Iron Age forts on the same edge. North, above North Nibley, the Tyndale Monument is another memorial tower on the Way, and in Wotton-under-Edge St Mary's Church holds the medieval brasses of Thomas Berkeley and his wife.