pit at the foot of Penshaw Hill. The materials were brought up the hill by a temporary spiral railway. Holes on the stone blocks of the monument's stylobate indicate that they were transported with a lifting device called a lewis. In January and February 1844, an invitation to tender for the monument's construction was placed in the Durham Chronicle and Newcastle Courant newspapers. The deadline to submit tenders was initially 15 February, but was later extended to 1 March. By 15 March the builder Thomas Pratt of Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland, had been awarded the contract; little is known about him. By March, operations to clear the ground at the site had begun; an invitation to tender for the transportation of the stone from the quarry to Penshaw Hill appeared in the Durham Chronicle on 29 March. By May, a trench for the monument's foundations had been dug. The foundation stone of the monument was laid on 28 August 1844 by Thomas Dundas, 2nd Earl of Zetland, Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England. The construction had been underway for several months: all the columns had been built to around half of their final height, except two at the front of the structure. The monument's scaffolding was adorned with flags for the ceremony. The Great North of England Railway Company organised special trains from Sunderland, Newcastle, Durham and South Shields to bring spectators to the event, and galleries were erected on either side of the monument to allow them to watch the ceremony—most of those in the galleries were women. The Durham Chronicle estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 spectators were present; the Durham County Advertiser reported at least 30,000. A pavilion was put up in a field to the south of Penshaw Hill to accommodate the Freemasons present, including 400 members of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Durham. At around 1:30 pm, the Freemasons formed a procession and ascended the hill, accompanied by a marching band and the monument's building committee. The Grand Treasurer placed a phial containing Victorian coins into a cavity in the foundation stone, which was then covered with a brass plate bearing an inscription that dedicated the monument to the Earl of Durham. Zetland then spread mortar on the stone with a silver trowel, specially engraved for the occasion. A second stone was then lowered on top of it as the band played "Rule, Britannia!",