History
Mackworth-Dolben built the tower to commemorate the death of his eldest son, William Digby, who drowned at sea on 1 September 1863. Digby, a naval officer serving on the Volta drowned in the mouth of the River Niger. His younger brother, the poet Digby Mackworth Dolben drowned in 1867.
The tower was circular and about 100 feet high. A gabled extension of one of the two floors had been added in keeping. The tower stood far back with a long driveway in front, along Station Road in Finedon. Not much changed in the surroundings of the Volta Tower apart from Finedon's new cemetery was built alongside the Volta Tower in 1892.
Read more about this topic: Volta Tower
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“We aspire to be something more than stupid and timid chattels, pretending to read history and our Bibles, but desecrating every house and every day we breathe in.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”
—E.L. (Edgar Lawrence)