Rothwell Jawbones, Wood Lane

• Format: Still Image
• Language: English
• Subjects: Rothwell Jawbones; Wood Lane; Wakefield; Fenton; Fin whale
• Online Access: http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?id=200341_19636172

19th March 2002. Image shows the third pair of Jawbones situated in Rothwell. They were purchased by the district council after the last pair became damaged in 1967. Bought from the Norwegians for £50 the bones originally belonged to a 75 foot long female Fin Whale. Despite problems with customs and duties the whale bones were eventually erected on Wood Lane becoming the jaw bone junction marker for Wood Lane and the Leeds and Wakefield Road. The first pair of jaw bones were brought back from America in the first half of the nineteenth century by one of the Fenton family, colliery owners and landowners of Rothwell. They were originally placed over the gateway of Fenton House in Woodhouse Hill. When the house was later sold the bones were removed and erected as gateposts to a field at the junction of Wood Lane with the Turnpike Road. The land was eventually bought by the Electric Tramway Company and the jaw bones were once again re-sited over the footpath and a lamp was fixed to the top. They were eventually moved again to their final position, as seen in this image, on the opposite side of the road.