Obelisk on Site of Chapel of St Leonard on Hoo Hill near Polesworth

1 Obelisk on site of St Leonard’s Chapel (PRN 225).
2 The obelisk on Hoo Hill carries the inscription “Site of the Chapel of St Leonard at Hoo. Demolished 1538 30th Henry VIII”.
3 The obelisk was erected in 1846 at the time of the finding of the remains of the chapel.
4 Photograph.
5 The obelisk stands on the brow of a hill overlooking Polesworth. A brick base supports three brown sandstone steps, surmounted by a steeper step, a cuboid pedestal, and the obelisk itself, all of blackened stone. The inscription reads as set out in 2 above. The story goes that during the construction of the Trent Valley Railway in 1847 workmen uncovered what might have been the bruial ground of the chapel. When the railway was widened, it is said, the obelisk was moved to its present site for safety reasons.
It is most likely to have been commissioned in the 1850s or early 1960s by the landowner, Sir George Chetwynd of Grendon Hall, perhaps at the suggestion of the Rev John Duff Schomberg, incumbent of Polesworth from around 1840-1864.
Page 333 shows a colour photograph of the obelisk and a 1880 survey which shows no sign of an obelisk near the railway.