A recent revelation on a private estate in South Yorkshire. Whilst wandering the grounds with the owner she mentioned it only as an aside: “I don’t suppose you are interested in the hermit’s cave?”. Not even the torrential April rain could dampen my spirits, although photos had to wait for more congenial weather. No history has been found to date, and it’s not even on O.S. maps, but appetites have been whetted…

The owner prefers that the site remain anonymous, fearing not folly-spotters but the local vandals, so I must keep this wonderful discovery to myself

The National Trust has applied for Listed Building Consent to place two replica busts in the Temple of Piety at Studley Royal.

Construction of the temple overlooking the Moon Ponds took place in the 1730s, probably under the direction of the stonemason John Doe. The architect is not known although the building is identical to a Palladio drawing of the (long since destroyed) Temple of Piety in Rome. This sketch was once owned by Lord Burlington, a friend of John Aislabie who owned Studley.

Confusingly, the structure at Studley was not originally known as the Temple of Piety but was dedicated to Hercules. Aislabie’s son William renamed the temple in honour of his late father, John Aislabie, in around 1747-8. At that date he commissioned the plasterwork specialist Cortese to add a bas-relief representing filial piety. This work illustrated an ancient moral tale in which a daughter manifested her love for her parent. The story told of a girl who visited her incarcerated father and secretly fed him her own breast milk to ensure his survival. When discovered, she was not punished, but praised for her devotion.

An inventory of 1768 shows that the building was used for refreshments, containing 6 chairs and a tea table but records don’t survive to confirm when the two busts were placed in situ. They are first recorded in 19th century guidebooks as the Roman emperors Titus, son of Vespasian, and Nero.

If you look hard you will find the original bronze busts on display at Beningbrough Hall in Yorkshire (also National Trust) where they were removed for safekeeping. They look rather forlorn and undignified perched on high ledges on the first floor landing. The resin replicas are on show in a better light in Fountains Hall on the Studley estate until the outcome of the application is known; Harrogate Borough Council’s decision should be announced in September 2018

Barbara Jones, the first person to write a comprehensive account of follies in Britain, saw this building and was underwhelmed. In the 1953 first edition of Follies & Grottoes she described it as ‘gutted’ and full of pigeon’s nests, and concluded that ‘no amount of bird life can divest this folly of its ordinariness’. If only she had seen it in its prime: a sketch by the itinerant artist and drawing master J.C. Nattes dated 1807 shows an enchanting little building.

Bambro’ Castle, as it was called, was named in honour of the Bamburgh family, former owners of Howsham. It is not recorded if the builder, Nathaniel Cholmley, was consciously allying his diminutive structure with the somewhat grander Bamburgh Castle on the Northumberland coast. It was extant by 1791, when it is named as ‘Bamburgh Castle House’. The gothic detail is similar to that on the nearby Howsham Mill which is attributed to John Carr of York. Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown is known to have drawn up a plan for Howsham, and these buildings ‘punctuating’ and ornamenting the landscape may have been his suggestion. Sadly little archival material for this period has survived for Howsham.

The folly served a dual purpose. By day, it was a summer-house for refreshments when riding through the ornamental woodland on the Howsham estate. Furnished with a ‘Chintz sofa’, an octagonal mahogany dining table, painted and gilded chairs and all the paraphernalia for serving lemonade, tea and cake it must have been an idyllic retreat. As night fell it perhaps became an observatory for it housed a ‘large Tellescope’.

Jones was one of the last to record the building. Soon after it deteriorated further and was eventually demolished as the ornamental woodland gave way to commercial forestry. Visitors in the 1980s were sad to find it gone.

Surely Barbara Jones was let down by her memory? The two photos above are from from her own files (generously shared from a private collection). How could she describe this folly as ordinary?

Howsham Hall is an events venue and there is no public access. Howsham Mill is open regularly https://www.howshammill.org.uk

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Beaverbrook is a sumptuous country house hotel close to Dorking in Surrey. It was formerly the home of Lord Beaverbrook, the press baron, who found it by accident, and snapped it up, whilst out motoring with Rudyard Kipling in 1911. His house guests at Cherkley Court, as it then was, included luminaries from politics, the arts and show business. Winston Churchill dictated letters from his bath, Jean Cocteau painted a glass panel that remains above a door and Elizabeth Taylor provided Hollywood glamour.

Beaverbrook died in 1964 and his widow lived until 1994. The house and grounds had deteriorated and the Beaverbrook Foundation, Beaverbrook’s charitable trust, decided to restore the estate as a conference and wedding venue with the grounds open to the public. A new garden structure and planting was designed by Simon Johnson who moved and restored two pavilions. But the greatest treat of all was commissioned from the talented Belinda Eade. She took an arcaded alcove under the stairs sweeping down from the house and created a shell-encrusted grotto. The decoration is based on the story of Arethusa, the Arcadian nymph who escaped her home by fleeing under the sea and emerged as a fountain. Intricate shell work has been used to depict gods and sea nymphs. The first visitors were welcomed in 2007.

More recently the Beaverbrook Foundation felt unable to maintain the house and gardens and wished, as it has always done, to spread its funds amongst a wide range of charities. With the proviso that the house be cherished and the special character preserved the property was sold to a hotel operator. Beaverbrook opened in 2017.

PS thanks to Michael Cousins, whose camera skills are more sophisticated than mine, for sending this much crisper image: