Grotto

architecture, Folly, Grotto

Tortoise Temples

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This 1831 illustration of the ‘Tortoise’s Grotto’, at the then brand new Surrey Zoological Gardens, is currently on view in Lost Gardens of London, the latest exhibition at The Garden Museum in Lambeth. As the show’s title hints, the zoo and the tortoises’ rocky home are long gone but, almost two centuries later, miniature follies are still being built to house chosen chelonians.

Alan Terrill has kept tortoises since he rescued a stray as a child, and as an adult he has created quirky homes for the creatures wherever life has taken him.

In the 1970s home was Sheffield and there were three tortoises in the family. Alan built an octagonal castle out of brick – each one cut at an angle by hand – which was then rendered. Set in elegant ornamental grounds, the tortoises soon got the hang of climbing the steps and passing through the portcullis to get to bed each evening.

From there the Terrill family moved to an old Methodist chapel in Kent. Alan set to work to build a miniature replica to house the tortoises, but reimagining the chapel as a ruin. The 1980s saw a fashion for fireplaces built of small bricks, and this was the ideal building material. The roof was made from tiny tiles created from a full-size roof slate. This home was taken down and travelled with the Terrills to their next home.

There it was joined by a second tortoise house exclusively for the boys (who tended to give the females a hard time in the warmer weather). Also in brick, this shelter had an Egyptian doorway and was topped with a pyramid. The finishing touch was a suitably macho tortoise sculpture.

In 2001 the family moved to Shropshire, leaving behind the tortoise houses. For some years the tortoises made do with makeshift shelters whilst Alan pondered what form their new home should take (and he was otherwise occupied building full-size follies in his new garden).

The Shell House at Staunton Harold (now Leigh Country Park) near Havant in Hampshire.

In January 2022 the Folly Flâneuse featured the recently-restored shell temple at Leigh Park (now Staunton Harold Country Park) in Havant, in Hampshire (above). Alan’s wife Claire instantly declared it just the model for a new tortoise house.

Alan’s tortoise-scaled version of the Shell House.

Alan set to work to design and build a miniature version in their tortoise enclosure. Pondering a design issue, Alan recruited restoration architect John Malaiperuman, who worked on the restoration of the 19th century original, for help. The temple has an internal wall to separate the males and females, and is decorated with shells bought on eBay. The tortoise folly is currently home to Diogenes (who has been part of the family for 47 years), Loosestrife and Ephebe.

Tortoise’s Grotto, Surrey Zoological Gardens, 1831, Edward Hassell (1811-1852) © London Metropolitan Archives (City of London).

Lost Gardens of London, guest curated by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, continues at The Garden Museum until 2 March 2025. The view of the ‘Tortoise’s Grotto’ has been adopted for display by the Folly Fellowship, the charity founded in 1988 to preserve, promote and protect follies, grottoes and garden buildings (when Alan is not busy building tortoise houses and full-size follies he maintains the Fellowship’s excellent website).

The trustees of the Folly Fellowship have asked the Flâneuse to invite readers to join their members at a private view of the exhibition on Friday 31 January. To find out more click here.

Thank you for reading and please get in touch via the comments box below if you wish to share any thoughts. 

architecture, Bath and North East Somerset, belvedere, eyecatcher, Folly, Grotto, Observatory, Tower

Beckford’s Tower, Bath, Bath & North East Somerset.

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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.

architecture, belvedere, eyecatcher, Folly, garden history, Grotto, landscape, North Yorkshire, Temple

The Grotto Temple, Masham, North Yorkshire

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Just over the river Ure from the market town of Masham is this unusual rotunda sitting on top of a rustic grotto. It was designed to take advantage of the view over the river to the church and the attractive little town. An engraved stone near the temple tells us that in 1770 ‘Samuel Wrather built this grotto’.

architecture, eyecatcher, Folly, garden history, Grotto, hermitage, North Yorkshire

The Hermitage, Newton House, near Whitby, North Yorkshire

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This stone shelter, grandly titled ‘The Hermitage’ stands in the former grounds of Newton House, a few miles from Whitby. Newton House was built in the late 18th century as the seat of Jonas Brown a Whitby ship-owner and merchant. Brown (1717-1799) is commemorated by an obelisk near the house which records that he built Newton House and tamed the surrounding wild heath to create arable land and pleasure grounds.

The early history of the cave, likes its interior, is a little murky and no contemporary account of its construction seems to exist. There’s no explanation why a hermitage was built here, although such solemn structures were a fashionable addition to landscapes at this date. The builder might have been inspired by the local ‘romantic fable’ of the Hermit of Eskdaleside, which is just a few miles from Newton House. The story goes that a monk from Whitby lived as a recluse in the woods, and one day an exhausted wild boar ran into his dwelling and expired. The monk slammed the door on the hunters who charged their way in and, furious, attacked the hermit and left him for dead. With his dying words he forgave them but imposed a penance (see the link at the end for the full story).

The legend of the hermit of Eskdaleside as told on a map of 1817. ‘In this Chapel the Wild Boar took Refuge when the Hermit was kill’d by the Lords of Ugglebarnby and Sneaton, then a hunting here’. Reproduced courtesy of North Yorkshire Country Record Office, PR/ESK.

In the grounds of Newton House a huge boulder was scooped out to create a cavern, with a stone bench running around the interior. Across the path from the hermitage is a walled viewing platform looking down to the May Beck in the valley below. There would have been no shortage of qualified workers to excavate the Hermitage, for the area was already extensively quarried for sandstone, and to provide materials for the local alum industry, in which Brown had an interest. The Hermitage is assumed to have been part of Brown’s landscaping works, but it does not bear his name. Instead is inscribed’ The Hermitage’ and ‘G + C’ and dated ‘1790’.

Identifying the person behind the initials ‘G+C’ is not easy. The first description in print seems to be in Whellan’s History & Topography of York and the North Riding which was published in 1859, almost 60 years after the cave was created. Whellan states that the Hermitage was built by George Clubb in 1790. A year later Francis Kildale Robinson’s 1860 guide to Whitby, its abbey, and the principal parts of the neighbourhood claims that the Hermitage bears the inscription ‘George Chubb, 1790′. Robinson is incorrect as the carving does not give a full name: there are simply the deeply-incised initials ‘G + C’. Later histories rely on Robinson and perpetuate the incorrect name of Chubb – but he shall be Clubb henceforth (conclusive evidence will be provided in due course).

George Waddington (1821-1898), a Whitby antiquary, amassed volumes of notes and clippings on the area, many based on the oral histories of local residents (now in the collection at the excellent Whitby Museum). In 1880 he noted that George Clubb had been factotum to the Brown family of Newton House, and also designer of ‘the stonehouse or hermitage’. Waddington was told that the hermitage was hollowed out by one Christopher Jeffrey, and that it had housed a stone table until a ‘young beast’ ran in and destroyed it (the species of this brawny brute is not specified). The roof of the cave is home to two stone chairs, one a simple stool, but the other a rather grand, although perhaps not hugely comfortable, armchair – were they for George and Christopher (G+C) creators of the cave?

Waddington was also told that Clubb had a school in nearby Littlebeck, and this part of the story at least appears to be verifiable. Whitby parish registers note that George Clubb, a Schoolmaster who lived to be 75, was buried at St Mary’s in Whitby (of Dracula fame) in November 1812. His dates are therefore c. 1737-1812, but no other trace of the enigmatic schoolmaster/factotum/hermitage designer has yet been found.

The Heritage as seen on a postcard sent in 1909. Courtesy of the Dave Martin Collection.

Jonas Brown died in 1799 and Newton House remained with his descendants until 1812, before passing through a number of owners. During the Second World War the house was requisitioned and in 1967 the estate was sold to the Forestry Commission. Having been a field studies centre for some years Newton House is now a private home.

Early 20th century postcard courtesy of a private collection.

The Hermitage stands a little way from the popular natural attraction of Falling Foss waterfall (and the equally popular Falling Foss Tea Garden). It can be easily accessed from the Falling Foss car park, or there is a lovely walk from the pretty hamlet of Littlebeck to Falling Foss, with the mysterious Hermitage, and a much more recent addition, as objects along the route.

Lines from ‘Peace’ by Georgia Douglas Johnson carved by local sculptor Steve Iredale on a tree which had to be felled because of ash dieback early in 2023. Discovered in the Little Beck Wood Nature reserve, en route to the Hermitage.

For the tale of the hermit and the boar see https://www.whitbyonline.co.uk/whitbyhistory/thepennyhedge.php

There’s more on Littlebeck Wood nature reserve here https://www.ywt.org.uk/nature-reserves/little-beck-wood-nature-reserve

If you have any other thoughts or comments, please scroll down to the foot of the page to get in touch. Thank you for reading.

architecture, Art, Column, eyecatcher, Folly, garden history, Grotto, hermitage, Monument, Rustic shelter, sham castle

Follies and Pharmaceuticals: a Curious Concoction

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Barbara Jones is best known to readers of these pages as the author of Follies & Grottoes (1953, revised 1974), the first book to consider the subject of garden and landscape buildings in any detail. She also wrote books about popular art, erotic postcards and furniture amongst other subjects, and as an illustrator and designer her work appeared in magazines, on calendars, dustjackets, greetings telegrams and much, much more.

architecture, eyecatcher, Folly, garden, garden history, Grotto, hampshire, landscape, public park, Summerhouse

The Shell-House, Leigh Park, Havant, Hampshire

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Sir George Staunton bought the Leigh Park estate in 1820, and set to work remodelling the house and ornamenting the park with an eclectic range of garden buildings. Many are sadly lost today, but a programme of restoration, in what is now Staunton Country Park, is bringing some of the survivors back to life. One of the loveliest of the garden ornaments is this exquisite little Shell-House.

architecture, belvedere, Folly, garden history, Grotto, hermitage, landscape, Perth & Kinross

The Hermitage, Falls of Acharn, Perth & Kinross

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In the 18th century the Campbell family, Earls of Breadalbane, embellished the park around the family seat at Taymouth with temples and mock forts, complementing the natural beauties of the surrounding hills and the River Tay that flows through the estate. Just a couple of miles away, on the shores of Loch Tay, was a more dramatic feature, a rustic shelter and a roaring cascade, which added a sublime element to the beautiful policies of Taymouth.

architecture, eyecatcher, Folly, garden, garden history, Grotto, landscape, Surrey

The Grotto and Cottage Orné, Oatlands Park, Surrey, as seen by the novelist Denton Welch

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Denton Welch was a talented artist and writer, but his career was sadly cut short by his early death in 1948. A few years before he died he described an ornate 18th century grotto in one of his novels: the fabulous grotto was for real, but it was demolished in the same year that Welch died, making his description all the more poignant.