Hoober
In the parish of Brampton Bierlow
Hoober Stand was constructed in 1748 by Henry Flitcroft for Thomas Watson-Wentworth , 1st Marquess of Rockingham at a cost of £3000 , to commemorate the defeat of the Jacobite rebellion.
This 98 foot high triangular belvedere is located 518 feet above sea level was carefully chosen to ensure a fine view.
The tower is open to the public on Sunday afternoons throughout the Summer.
In 1879 Richard Massey, employed by Earl Fitzwilliam, was at Hoober House.
Extract from The Guardian describing the area:
Visible from miles around, the top of Hoober Stand sits more than 600ft above sea level, affording magnificent views across the surrounding countryside - except when, like today, the clouds are low, and mist hangs on every hill top. Built between 1747 and 1749 to commemorate the defeat of Scottish Jacobite rebels, its triangular tower, topped by a hexagonal cupola, offset to one side, gives the impression, as you walk past, that it is falling over. It is said that the ladies of the Wentworth estate would climb it to watch the hunt across the nearby parkland.
Adjacent to the stand is a small woodland of oak and beech, which clothes the mounds and hollows of a sandstone quarry, perhaps the source of the stand's building stone. The damp and dismal morning air permeates the wood; twigs, festooned with water droplets, drench your coat as you brush past. The ground is golden brown with fallen leaves, gathered by the wind and rain in the hollows, which makes it feel like snow underfoot as you trudge through.
The silence is shattered by the shrill alarm call of a green woodpecker bursting from the trees, and a female sparrowhawk in hot, but brief, pursuit. A good meal if the hawk could catch it, but not this time.
By the narrow lane which links Hoober with Wentworth and other villages is an octagonal gatehouse; across the lane, a small, empty car park, shut up for the winter. But the shrubs are alive with blue tits, great tits, chaffinches, robins and dunnocks. They come close, peering out from their cover, constantly on the move, constantly calling to each other.
Just a hundred yards or so down the lane is a more recent building, designed for observation. The Mexborough and Swinton astronomical society has its white-domed observatory sited here on the highest ridge in the area, lifted, to some extent, above the night-time light pollution from the distant towns. Still the mist rolls across the fields and hedges, making observation of any sort difficult. Even kestrels are hovering low, their sharp eyesight blunted by the vapours below them.
Source:A country diary, South Yorkshire , Pete Bowler, Saturday November 23, 2002. The Guardian
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