architecture, belvedere, country house, Cumbria, eyecatcher, Folly, garden history, landscape, Summerhouse

The Summerhouse, Yealand Conyers, Lancashire.

High above the village of Yealand Conyers in Lancashire could once be found this pretty little summerhouse. It was built to take advantage of the ‘extensive and picturesque views of the adjacent bay of Morecambe, and the bold and much admired Mountain Scenery of Cumberland and Westmorland’.

architecture, Bell tower, country house, eyecatcher, Folly, garden history, landscape garden, Norfolk

The Clock Tower, Little Ellingham Hall, Norfolk

In the 1850s John Tingey, a Norfolk merchant with a passion for agriculture, began to develop a small estate in the village of Little Ellingham near Attleborough, in Norfolk. Despite investing heavily in new buildings and technology, he was not the owner of the land, and claimed his vast complex of farm buildings was the largest range ‘ever erected by a tenant farmer in England’. But the practical Tingey wasn’t averse to a little bit of ornament, as this clock tower/cottage curiosity attests.

architecture, country house, eyecatcher, Folly, garden history, landscape garden, Northumberland

Twizel Castle, Duddo, Northumberland.

In the furthest reaches of Northumberland, close to the Scottish border, stands the romantic ruin of an ancient family seat. This is not a particularly unusual sight in this region of skirmishes and sackings, so why has this particular building become known as a folly? It is of course an elegant eye-catcher, seen over the single span of the ancient bridge over the river Till, but there is more to the story, and as Barbara Jones wrote, Twizel Castle falls into the ‘foolishness-type folly’ category – a picturesque but purposeless palace.

architecture, country house, eyecatcher, garden history, landscape, Monument, Obelisk, Shropshire

Duke of Sutherland Obelisk, Lilleshall, Shropshire.

In July 1833 the 1st Duke of Sutherland died. Tenants on his estates in Staffordshire (Trentham), Scotland (Dunrobin) and Shropshire quickly made plans to commemorate the man they considered a benevolent landlord – according to the inscriptions that is: the Duke was not quite as revered as the tributes might suggest. In Shropshire the tenants on the Lilleshall estate decided to erect an obelisk on Lilleshall Hill, high above the village, and by November the foundation stone had been laid. By the end of the century the obelisk had been struck by lightning (twice) and had caused some embarrassment for the editor of a local paper.

architecture, country house, eyecatcher, Folly, garden history, landscape, landscape garden, Northamptonshire, Triumphal Arch

The Spectacle, Boughton Park, Northamptonshire

William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford (1722-1791) had his principal seat at Wentworth Castle near Barnsley in Yorkshire, and Boughton in Northamptonshire was where he broke the journey to the social and political hub of London. Both estates were embellished with temples, sham churches and castles, obelisks and archways, including this castellated curiosity at Boughton.

architecture, Banqueting House, belvedere, country house, eyecatcher, Folly, garden history, landscape, Northumberland, Summerhouse, Tower

The Summerhouse, North Seaton Hall, Northumberland

North Seaton Hall stood in the hamlet of the same name, just inland from Newbiggin by the Sea on the Northumberland coast. The house and ancillary buildings were demolished in the 1960s, and the land developed for housing: only the road called ‘Summerhouse Lane’ gives a clue to a fascinating feature which once ornamented the grounds.