On a promontory overlooking the harbour at Boscastle stands a squat white building bedecked with flags and antennas. It started life in the middle of the 18th century when it was erected as a summerhouse and eye-catcher by Cotton Amy, whose Botreaux Castle estate included the harbour and lands around it. In 1821 the land was purchased by Thomas Rickard Avery, a local merchant and, depending on who you believe, a ‘notorious wrecker’.
belvedere
Browne’s Folly, Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire
In 1848 a brief note in local newspapers announced that a ‘lofty tower’ had been erected on Farleigh Down. Commanding the ‘most extensive and magnificent prospects’, the tower was built by Wade Browne, who had recently settled at Monkton Farleigh. The tower stands in Wiltshire – although very close to the border with Somerset.
Portobello Tower, Hilton Hall, Staffordshire
Travellers on the M6 might have called in to Hilton Services to break their journey. Few will know that only a few fields away stands a tall prospect tower, although they may have caught a glimpse of it from the motorway. The belvedere was built in the middle of the eighteenth century by Henry Vernon of Hilton Park in commemoration of the taking of Portobello in 1739.
Polly Peachum’s Tower, or the Mount House, Bolton Hall, North Yorkshire
Bolton Hall in Wensleydale, Yorkshire, was the seat of the Dukes of Bolton. The 3rd Duke’s mistress (and later wife) was the acclaimed actress and singer Lavinia Fenton, best known for creating the role of Polly Peachum in the premiere of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera in 1728. In the 19th century writers told the romantic tale that this tower was built as a summerhouse retreat for the Duchess, but it actually began life years earlier as a hunting stand.
The Wallace Monument, or Barnweil Tower, Ayrshire
The gruesome tale is told that William Wallace, the famed Scottish soldier, stood on Barnweil Hill, near Tarbolton in Ayrshire, and watched as the barns in which he had trapped English soldiers were set alight. He is supposed to have uttered the words ‘The barns o’Ayr burn weel’, giving the spot its name. Few people seem to have genuinely believed this story, but in 1854 the decision was taken to erect a tower on the hilltop to commemorate ‘the matchless Sir William Wallace’.
Blaise Castle, Bristol.
In the first half of the 1760s Thomas Farr, a Bristol merchant, bought land at Henbury near Bristol, which included the prominent eminence called ‘Blaize Hill’. In 1766 he commissioned designs from the architect Robert Mylne for a sham castle eye-catcher to top the hill.
Black Dick’s Temple, Whitley Beaumont, West Yorkshire
Many follies have lurid tales attached telling of wicked acts and/or ghostly goings-on and a classical temple, high on the Whitley Beaumont estate near Kirkheaton, doesn’t disappoint. It is known locally as Black Dick’s Temple, after Whitley Beaumont’s owner in the early seventeenth century, Sir Richard Beaumont. Local legends tell that Sir Richard ran up such huge debts gambling that he had to live a double-life as a highwayman. He is said to haunt the site and, of course, there are whispers of a network of secret tunnels under the building.
Beckford’s Tower, Bath, Bath & North East Somerset.
In April 1826 a visitor to Bath noted that William Beckford, a ‘wealthy and capricious voluptuary’, had bought land on Lansdown Hill ‘with the design of erecting a magnificent tower with drest grounds about it’. The visitor knew that this had been planned since soon after Beckford’s move to the city in 1822, but he could see no sign of any progress on the project. Had he arrived just a few months later he would have found builders hard at work.
Chanter’s Folly, Appledore, Devon
Overlooking the River Torridge in the harbour town of Appledore there once stood a tall, square tower. The story is told that it was built by a wealthy shipowner so that he could keep an eye on his fleet, but that the dimensions were miscalculated and it wasn’t tall enough to command the expected panorama. Thus it became ‘Chanter’s Folly’.
The Tower, Tabley House, Cheshire. Part I: Early Days.
J.M.W. Turner's view of the lake and tower at Tabley House. Full reference below.
Sir Peter Byrne Leicester inherited the Tabley estate in 1742. At that date the mansion and adjacent chapel were picturesquely situated on an island in a lake, but Sir Peter had new ideas. In around 1760 he called in John Carr of York to build a new mansion, in the Palladian style, on higher ground about half a mile from the old. With the new hall complete Sir Peter did not demolish the old hall and chapel on the island, but instead left them standing to be admired as ‘ornamental features in the landscape’ (although he had little choice as the terms of his inheritance compelled him to keep the old mansion in repair). Sir Peter’s son would later add a tower as an eye-catcher and picnic pavilion.