White Nancy
| White Nancy | |
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White Nancy in 2005
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| Location | Kerridge, Bollington, Cheshire, England |
| Coordinates | 53°17′27″N 2°05′32″W / 53.29096°N 2.09235°WCoordinates: 53°17′27″N 2°05′32″W / 53.29096°N 2.09235°W |
| OS grid reference | SJ 939 771 |
| Elevation | 280.5 metres (920 ft) |
| Built | 1815 |
| Built for | Gaskell family |
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Listed Building – Grade II
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| Official name: White Nancy | |
| Designated | 17 March 1966 |
| Reference no. | 1138973 |
 Location in Cheshire
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White Nancy is a structure at the top of the northern extremity of the Saddle of Kerridge, predominantly in the Parish of Rainow, overlooking the village of Kerridge and the town of Bollington, Cheshire, England. Since 1966 it has been recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. Its profile forms the logo for the town of Bollington. As to the origin of the name White Nancy, there are several theories: it may have been named after one of the Gaskell daughters, Nancy, or maybe after the horse that is said to have hauled the table top up the hill.
White Nancy was built in 1817 by John Gaskell junior of North End Farm to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Waterloo. John Gaskell was a member of the Gaskell family who lived nearby at Ingersley Hall. It originally had an entrance to a single room which was furnished with stone benches and a central round stone table, but the entrance is now blocked. It has been described as a summer house or a folly.
In the mid-1940s, the Royal Signal Corps Trials Unit based at Catterick would drive a truck-mounted dish-shaped transmitter/receiver up to White Nancy. Here they tested cathode-ray tube transmission and reception (data-based, not images), to a mobile receiving station on another truck. The receiver would be driven further and further south over time, until eventually the lads at White Nancy were sending a signal to the south coast of the country. Locals told the signallers that the landmark was named after the lead horse that had transported all the materials for the building of White Nancy.
The structure is circular in plan with its shape described as that of a sugar loaf, and is surmounted with a ball finial. It is built in sandstone rubble which has been rendered and painted. It is about 18 feet (5 m) high. Stone paving has been laid around its base which is inscribed with the points of the compass.
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Wikipedia