Nelson Monument, Portsdown Hill

The Nelson Monument, 120 feet (37 m) tall on a granite base,[1] stands on Portsdown Hill about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Portsmouth Harbour on the south coast of England. It was the eventual outcome of a movement started during Horatio Nelson's lifetime to "perpetuate the glorious victories of the British Navy".[2] By 1799 Nelson's prize agent Alexander Davison was able to use the Nelson name to spearhead a campaign[3] to honour "Britain's naval glory and pre-eminence". It was, however, Nelson's death at Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, that galvanized the campaign.[4]

Nelson Monument

Designer	John Thomas Groves
Type	Stele
Completion date	1808
Dedicated to	Horatio Nelson

A design for the monument by John Thomas Groves of the Board of Works was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1807,[5] The monument is modelled on the Aksum Stele, Ethiopia: Groves was inspired by the findings in Aksum of Henry Salt who visited Ethiopia in 1805.[6]

However, letters were written to The Times asking where the money Davison had raised had gone,[7] but the £4050 he raised was never recovered.[8] The final (and successful) attempt was paid for by the Navy itself.[9] This time the fund's driving force, Captain Thomas Fremantle, adopted a more altruistic approach,[10] and the monument commenced construction on 4 July 1807[11] with the final checks to the inscription[12] made just over a year later. The monument was rebuilt in 1899, but the bust is the original. The monument still serves as a navigation mark, used in compass corrections.

• 
  Dedication
• 
  Information board
• 
  Summit, with bust of Nelson

Although very near the town of Fareham, the monument falls within the boundary of Winchester City Council.[13] The adjacent Fort Nelson, Portsmouth, completed in 1871 as another Napoleon threatened England's south coast, is so named because of its proximity to the monument.[14]