THE scaffolding is in place for repair work on the historic obelisk in Broughton’s Market Square.

It is one of several new projects granted funds from the South Lakeland District Council’s Environment Partnership Fund.

Also sharing in the latest £75,000 round of spending is work on Kendal Castle, new toilets at a public park in Windermere and the refurbishment of benches at Levens.

The three-year fund is designed to encourage trading and business activity in towns and villages in South Lakeland through quality enhancement schemes to enhance the district’s character.

The successful application for funding for the Broughton obelisk was made by Duddon Parish Council.

Broughton’s obelisk commemorates the Golden Jubilee of George III in 1810 and is in the centre of a square laid out in 1760 by John Gilpin Sawrey, of Broughton Tower.The obelsisk was put up by Sawrey’s widow.

The Town Hall dating to 1766 was once the market hall and is now the Tourist Information Centre.

The Mannex directory of Furness and Cartmel for 1882 noted: “It is nearly in the form of a square, and the houses being all built of stone, have a clean and respectable appearance.”

Broughton’s obelisk plays a key role in the annual declaration of the market charter, which by tradition is read from the steps on the 1 st of August.

In Elizabethan times a charter was granted to hold fairs in Broughton, which includes the wording: “all manner of persons repairing to this fair and market, do keep her Majesty's peace, upon pain of £5 to be forfeited to her Majesty, and their bodies to be imprisoned during the lord's pleasure.”

There was to be no buying or selling “in corners, backsides, or hidden places, but in open fair or market.”