On high ground in Weston Park, ancestral seat of the earls of Bradford, stands this prospect tower. Although Weston Park is in Staffordshire, the knoll on which the tower stands is just over the border into Shropshire, and it was formerly home to another monument, allegedly built for the most repulsive of reasons. 

Until 1855 Tong Knoll was part of the Tong Castle estate which adjoined Weston Park. In 1760 George Durant (1731-1780) purchased the Tong estate from the Duke of Kingston and set about remodelling the house and grounds. Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown provided plans, but sadly little archival evidence survives to record how the works were implemented, and it was later reported that Durant was ‘his own architect’.

Durant died in 1780 when his son, also George, was still a minor. After taking control of the estate when he came of age, George junior (1776-1844) indulged in his two favourite pastimes: embellishing the estate with countless architectural curiosities, and exercising his droit de seigneur. This latter activity led to the local legend (which may not have been stretching the truth too far) that he had a child in every cottage in the village, as well as the fourteen children that were the legitimate issue of his marriage to Mary Ann Eld of Seighford, Staffordshire.

His wife was understandably unable to tolerate his constant philandering, and in around 1820 demanded a divorce: Durant v. Durant kept the legal profession busy for a number of years. Throughout the proceedings George Durant played for time with the help of his attorney, Thomas Wood of Wolverhampton, sniffily described by his wife’s London legal team as ‘a country lawyer not known in this court’.

All of this was reported in the national and local papers, but after Durant’s death another story emerged. The tale told is that Durant baulked at the £600 of alimony awarded to his ex-wife: his bumpkin brief successfully appealed, and the sum was reduced to £400. To mark the occasion Durant built a ‘conspicuous object’ on Tong Knoll, clearly visible from the road between Wolverhampton and Tong. Historians give different accounts of the design of the building – was it square or octagonal, two storeys or three? Sadly, no views are known to survive.

There is also disagreement about the wording Durant added over the door: one writer says OPTIMO ADICO TW and another OPTIMA AMICO TW. But whether the plaque commemorated the best of outcomes, or the best of friends, all are agreed that ‘TW’ was a tribute to the lawyer Thomas Wood. The case may have been a career high for Wood as he was described in 1847 as an Insolvent Debtor ‘formerly of Wolverhampton […] afterwards a Prisoner in the Fleet Prison, lately a Prisoner in the Queen’s Prison, and now deceased.’

The monument had but a brief existence, being destroyed in a dramatic fashion soon after Durant’s death in November 1844. According to a story which appeared in the local paper only days after Durant’s demise, his eldest legitimate son, George, who died in 1831, had made a death-bed plea to his younger brothers that they would one day avenge their father’s betrayal of their mother. As soon as news of their father’s death reached them, Ernest and Frank gathered together 29 labourers and made their way to the tower. A few minutes later, thanks to 50lbs of gunpowder, the building was blown up ‘without accident’ and George’s wish that the monument should perish with its builder was granted. The explosion was heard for miles around, with some locals fearing it was an earthquake. News of the blast soon travelled, and the pile of rubble briefly became a tourist attraction.

In 1855 the Durant family offered the Tong estate for sale, and the successful purchaser was the 2nd Earl of Bradford of Weston Park. The earl’s daughter, Lady Charlotte Bridgeman, was delighted that her father had secured the land, writing ‘Hurrah for Tong Knoll! We may walk straight to the top as often as we like’.

In 1883 the 3rd earl of Bradford topped the knoll with a new tower at a cost of £634.1.0. No documentary evidence for the architect has yet been found, although John MacVicar Anderson (1835-1915) was updating the house in the same period and must be a contender.

The prospect-cum-banqueting house was built as an eye-catcher from a number of viewing points in the park, and the land around it was managed for hunting, so the tower would have been a lofty grandstand for viewing the chase, and a comfortable space for refreshments. The Tong Knoll Gallops, where the earl’s racehorses were exercised, were also nearby, and the tower appears in the background of a portrait of the earl’s prizewinning Retreat (who later enjoyed a contented retirement put out to stud).

The tower soon became a local landmark, and the family welcomed local charities such as the Band of Hope Trust, who climbed the tower after a tea party in 1896.A Bridgeman family anecdote tells that it was Britain’s two times Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, who suggested that a tower be built on the site. Disraeli was a friend of the family, and often visited Weston Park, but sadly he would never see the tower as he died in 1881.

The 7th and current Earl of Bradford gave Weston Park to the nation in 1986, and the Weston Park Foundation was formed to manage the estate. By 1992 the foundation had turned its attention to four ornamental garden structures which were in need of restoration and a purpose: the Knoll Tower, the Temple of Diana, the Pink Cottage and the Boat House. They were offered for sale or lease in 1992, with the foundation retaining the option to buy them back after 21 years.

Although there was interest, the rigorous vetting process only found the right candidate for the Boat House, which is let to a fishery operator. But that is good news for holidaymakers, as the Knoll Tower (grade II), the Temple of Diana (grade I) and the Pink Cottage (grade II) were later restored by the estate and are now available to rent.

Tong Castle was damaged by fire in the early years of the 20th century, and demolished in 1954, but a few of George Durant junior’s curious structures remain for intrepid folly-spotters to find.

For more on staying in the amazing properties at Weston Park see https://www.weston-park.com/visit/stay/

The Temple of Diana and the Knoll Tower can be seen from walks on days when Weston Park is open to the public, and the Pink Cottage can be glimpsed through the trees https://www.weston-park.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Weston-Park-Walks-Leaflet-.pdf

Thanks to Gareth Williams, Curator and Head of Learning to the Weston Park Foundation, for his help with this post. For more on the estate see his new book https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781783276127/weston-park/

Newstead Abbey is best known as the seat of the Romantic poet George Gordon, Lord Byron, but it was equally famed in the middle of the 18th century as the home of his great-uncle, William, the 5th Baron, known as the ‘Wicked Lord’. It was William who built sham forts and castles around the estate’s Great Lake, on which sailed his fleet of boats.

William (1722-1798) became notorious when he killed a man in a duel in 1765, and after his death countless stories were told of the Wicked Lord’s licentiousness, his feckless approach to money, and his murderous tendencies – many of the tales were wildly exaggerated, but whatever his vices he had the virtue of knowing how to erect a good gothic folly.

The sham castle on a hill above the lake was built in 1749, the date being inscribed above the door, although no records of a designer seem to survive. The Battery on the shore of the lake below the Castle must have been constructed around the same date, as it is shown in an engraving published in October 1749.

The Castle, as it is named on the earliest Ordnance Survey map of 1838, was built as a belvedere, from whence ‘the views of the lakes, the abbey and its fine arch, the plantation and the park […] form a very noble landscape’. It was also a banqueting house, and in the basement were servants quarters for the preparation of food. The upper storey was an ‘Octagon Gothic Room’ with a coved ceiling. This space was fashionably fitted out with a polychromatic Gothic fire surround, a sofa, blue and gold ‘Chinese’ chairs, and statues including Venus and Flora. No doubt great parties were held there, although little contemporary evidence can be found. But such is the Wicked Lord’s reputation that Emily Brand, in her recent book on the Byron family, surmises that ‘beyond that great oak door William and his dishonourable friends supposedly sank into depravity and staged drink-fuelled orgies’.

Below the Castle was a rampart with gateways at each end on which 4 guns were mounted, and at the foot of the slope was the Battery, ‘a small Fortification with about Twenty Cannon’ and a flagpole with boathouse alongside. Once the Castle and Battery were complete William ordered a number of boats, and in September 1753 a friend of the family noted in her diary that ‘ye ships came today to Newstead’. As well as craft described simply as yachts and boats, there was a rather more impressive gunship equipped with 20 cannon. This vessel fired a gun salute which was returned from the fort and battery. The accounts for 1755 show that a sailor and an assistant were paid to maintain the fleet and crew the ships. It has been assumed, with the arsenal of cannon on the boat and at the forts, that mock naval battles (naumachia) were enacted at Newstead, and whilst that seems likely, no first-hand accounts of such antics have been found.

By 1759 William had already embellished a mill across the lake from the Battery with turrets and battlements. In that same year it was reported that he was planning to add kennels and stables in a similar style. In 1767 a visitor noted that the building was known as ‘Moro Castle’, suggesting that it was complete by 1762, the year the British stormed the Moro Castle in the Siege of Havana during the Seven Years War. But this is the sole mention of it by that name, and it was better known as the Fort.

All of this investment, as well as William’s extravagant lifestyle in general, led to financial difficulties, and he had to sell off wood to pay his debts. In 1760 Horace Walpole wrote to his friend George Montagu to say that Lord Byron had ‘lost large sums, and paid part in old oaks, five thousand pounds worth of which have been cut near the house’.

Walpole may have exaggerated a little for dramatic effect, as other visitors in the 1760s admired the ‘fine park’, and the ‘fine oaks’. The trees in the immediate vicinity of the Castle were certainly reprieved, as in 1768 a visitor admired the ‘large plantation’ each side of the folly. These woods are shown in an engraving of 1780 after a painting by Paul Sandby, above, and in the anonymous watercolour taken from the same viewpoint.

The Castle survived into the 20th century, being used for a time as a schoolroom, but it was demolished in 1921, with only traces now visible above ground.

The Battery (listed grade II* as ‘the Cannon Fort’) and the Fort (grade II) can still be seen: the former was restored a few years ago and can be visited, and the latter, the abbey’s tea-room in the middle of the 20th century, can be admired from across the lake.

Newstead Abbey was bought by the philanthropist Sir Julien Cahn and presented to the City of Nottingham in 1931. The fort and stables were later sold and converted to private housing but the abbey and park have continued as a popular tourist destination ever since. Read more https://newsteadabbey.org.uk

For more on Naumachia see the essay by Michael Cousins (who is thanked for his help with this post) and Patrick Eyres in the New Arcadian Journal https://www.newarcadianpress.co.uk/product/naumachia/

For more on Newstead see the excellent Newstead Abbey: a Nottinghamshire Country House: its Owners and Architectural History 1540-1931, by Rosalys Coope & Pete Smith.    http://www.thorotonsociety.org.uk/publications/recordseries/newsteadabbey.htm

The Folly Flâneuse is taking a short break to catch up with family, friends, and (of course) follies, and will be back next week. She sends her best wishes to all readers, and hopes that you too are able to enjoy the relaxation of restrictions, whilst remaining safe and well.

Meanwhile here is the jaunty yellow boathouse at Belton Park in Lincolnshire. Designed by Anthony Salvin and built in c.1838-9, it was restored by the National Trust in 2008.