It has also been proposed that it marks the defeat of the 1745–46 Jacobite rising as Archer was a prominent member of the Whig party who opposed the rising. Other claims are that it marks the meeting place of the last coven of witches in Warwickshire or a nearby gospel tree, a place of informal Christian worship, said to date to the Norman Conquest. The construction came at a time when the erection of obelisks was popular on English country estates and the purpose of the monument may simply be to enhance the view from Umberslade Hall. It is placed so as to be prominently visible from the windows of the hall.