The Hagley Obelisk (also known as the Wychbury Obelisk and locally as Wychbury Monument) stands close to the summit of Wychbury Hill in Hagley, Worcestershire, and is only about 150 metres from the border of the West Midlands.
The obelisk is a Grade II* listed building. It is 84 feet (26 m) high, and can be seen for many miles around, as far as Shropshire, and the hill if not the monument on its summit from the Malverns.
The obelisk was commissioned by Sir Richard Lyttelton, a son of the elderly Sir Thomas Lyttelton, the owner of the nearby Hagley Hall. Hagley Hall has been the home of successive Viscounts Cobham and Wychbury Hill is part of the property, but is accessible from public footpaths.
Building of obelisk the started in 1747 and was constructed at the same time as George the eldest son and heir of Sir Thomas (and the future 1st Lord Lyttelton), started to refashion Hagley Hall park in the then fashionable Picturesque style. The refashioning included building a ruined castle, the Clent Hill four stones and temples styled in Greek and Roman architecture.
In 1999 the obelisk was defaced with graffiti referring to the unsolved post World War II mystery: Who put Bella in the Wych Elm? when the decomposed body of a woman was found in a nearby wood.
There had been much debate for decades over whether the badly damaged structure should be demolished for safety reasons, but the consensus was that time and weather should be allowed to do the job until its restoration could be funded. It was on the English Heritage list of the most endangered listed buildings and in 2010, conservation work was begun to repair the structure with funding aid from Natural England's Higher Level Stewardship scheme and the Viscount Cobham. This involved it being largely deconstructed and rebuilt. By 2011 the obelisk had been fully restored.