The Flâneuse recently puzzled over this black and white photograph of a tall archway that is annotated ‘Breedon-on-the-Hill’. Internet searches using every combination of the village name with ‘arch’, ‘gate’ and ‘folly’, and as many other ideas as the Flâneuse could come up with, drew a complete blank. But driving into the village there it was, just to our right, and unchanged since the older photograph was taken.

A little way further along the wall from the gateway three letters are created from a patchwork of stone blocks near the entrance to a busy quarry. They abbreviate the former name of the works, the Breedon and Cloud Hill Lime Works Company: Breedon has been the site of quarrying and lime extraction since the eighteenth-century.

Aerial photographs of the quarry, taken in the middle of the twentieth century, show the gateway standing in what appears to be a bare plot, but it is still not immediately clear what purpose the arch serves.

Happily the excellent Breedon-on-the-Hill parish website has links to two volumes of pictorial history which explain that the ‘gateway’ was the centrepiece of a rockery, one of a number built by the owner of the quarry to beautify the village. By the late 1950s the village had become known for these rockery gardens of ‘artistic stonework’ which were planted with flowers and full of ‘vital colour’. According to the history, much of the rockwork was created freehand by Lawrence Wakefield, although the archway is not specifically attributed to him.

For much of the twentieth century the quarry was owned and/or managed by the Shields family. In 1959 Captain C.F. Shields, Managing Director of the works, told a reporter from the Leicester Evening Mail that providing good houses for workers, and ornamenting the village, was ‘making a return’ for ‘despoiling the rock that gives the village its name and character’. And of course the stonework was a great advertisement for the company’s products which included ‘rockery and grotto stone’.

Through the archway, which stands on the village’s Main Street, are steps leading up to the quarry offices, although sadly they now terminate in a ‘keep out’ sign.

If visiting Breedon-on-the-Hill don’t miss the village’s other attractions which include an eighteenth century lockup and the very pleasing War Memorial to those lost in the First and Second World Wars.

Take time to explore the church of St Mary and St Hardulph, which stands high above the village close to the quarry face (it is just out of shot in the aerial photo’ – it stands on the plateau above the quarry face on the right). As well as important Anglo-Saxon sculpture there are also fine tombs, including a vast monument to Sir George Shirley and his family, dated 1598, which features this intricate life-size memento mori.

Thank you for reading and do please get in touch if you know more about the arch, or would like to share any thoughts. The comments box can be found at the foot of the page.

P.S. A well-known landscape ornament has been in the news this week and deserves a mention. Beckford’s Tower, near Bath, won the Award for Restoration of a Georgian Building in a Landscape at the Georgian Group Architectural Awards 2025. Congratulations to all the team at the Bath Preservation Trust

In the little village of Barsby stands a most unexpected delight – a house with a rather fancy pinnacled gothic tower attached. It started life in the late 19th century as a village meeting place – a philanthropic endeavour by the local vicar.

The vicar of nearby Ashby Folville, Reverend John Godson (1834-1912), also had the care of Barsby. He held the living from 1869, and the 1871 census records him living at the vicarage in the village. With him was his wife Martha Ann (née Bolton) but sadly she died soon after giving birth to a daughter, Mary, in 1876. Mary grew up with her father in the Ashby Folville vicarage where they had the services of a groom, a housekeeper and a cook.

The village of Barsby had no church, and villagers had to travel to Ashby Folville for services. The story goes that Godson intended the tower as a mortuary chapel, and the land around it was to be a burial ground: the graveyard at the ancient St Mary’s in Ashby Folville was running out of space. Apparently Godson’s superiors in the diocese refused permission and the plan was abandoned, although no documents can be found to corroborate these events.

The name of the architect is not recorded, although we do known that Godson had an interest in the subject as a member of the Leicestershire Architectural and Archaeological Society, and he was photographed with the architects F.W. Ordish (1821-1885) and J.C. Traylen (1845-1907). They were responsible for a major restoration of Ashby Folville church in 1874, but Ordish at least can be ruled out as the designer of the Barsby tower as he died before it was built.

What is known is that Godson had long ‘greatly desired’ that there should be a space in Barsby itself where religious meetings, Sunday schools and evening classes could be offered to the villagers. In 1887 he commissioned local joiners and masons to erect such an edifice, but not content with a simple room he created a building of ‘such size and character as to form a pleasing and very prominent feature in the village’. A local newspaper concluded that the appearance of Barsby was ‘wonderfully improved by it’, and as this old postcard shows, albeit faintly, the tower was an prominent eye-catcher seen down the village’s Main Street.

The first event was held in the ‘Church Mission Room’ in January 1888, when villagers and visitors had a tea party followed by a sermon given by a missioner from Leeds. The Barsby Wesleyans had completed work on a room adjoining their chapel in the village only a few weeks earlier: cynics might conclude that the vicar’s reluctance to lose his flock to the Wesleyans may have influenced his benevolence in building the meeting room.

Alongside the programme of visiting preachers, Godson allowed local groups and families to use the hall. Birthdays were celebrated there, the Ashby Folville Church Choir held a ‘social’ in 1907, and later that same year a Miss Dalton gave a talk on her time as a ‘lady missionary’ in the Yukon, ‘wherein the famous gold-mines of Klondyke are situated’. After the First World War a group of village men who had served together met regularly at Godson’s Folly to share their memories.

Godson resigned the vicariate of Ashby Folville in 1910 after 40 years in the parish, and died on 27 May 1912. It’s not clear who took ownership of the Mission Room after his death, but sometime around the mid 1930s it was adapted as a private house, with an upper storey being added to the meeting room. In 1954 ‘Tower House’ was home to Mr and Mrs Adams: Arthur Adams remembered the tower being built, and his wife recalled attending Sunday School in the adjoining room.

Nothing seems to survive to explain why Godson wanted an elaborate tower attached to his meeting room. Did he wish it to appear that Barsby had a church? Was it an observatory, or did it have some other practical purpose? All we know is that Mr and Mrs Adams had a son who used the upper room to build wireless sets – presumably there was a good signal up there.

Godson’s Folly remains a private home, but is now tucked away in trees with only the pinnacled roof visible amidst the street furniture of modern life. The keen-eyed might spot that the street-sign reads ‘Church Lane’: it is not clear if the road took its name from Godson’s sham church tower and Mission Hall, or from a long-lost place of worship. The tower can be seen from this road.

Thank you for reading. As ever, please get in touch if you have any thoughts or information – scroll down to find the comments box (your contact details remain private, only your name will appear).

Soon after the close of the First World War the people of Loughborough began to consider how to commemorate those who had lost their lives in the conflict. The civic dignitaries considered a number of ideas but the proposal of a ‘lofty tower and carillon of bells caught the imagination of a number of eminent municipal people’.

When the idea was put to the townspeople there was great support, and it was decided that the tower should be built in Queen’s Park where ‘the sweet note of the carillon set in beautiful surroundings would prove a solace to many an aching and desolated heart’.

A carillon was thought appropriate for a war memorial in Loughborough for two principal reasons. First, the town was ‘the birthplace of some of the finest bells in existence’. These were produced at Taylor’s Bell Foundry, which survives today: bells have been cast there since 1839 and can be heard throughout the world.

It was also felt that carillons were particularly associated with Flanders, in Belgium, where ‘so many spots were for ever England’ for the Loughborough men who had been killed there.

The tower, now listed at grade II, was designed by Walter John Tapper (1861-1935) who was particularly known for his ecclesiastical work. He served as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1927-28 and was Surveyor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey from 1928 until his death. He was knighted shortly before his death in 1935. Tapper’s first proposal was rejected as too expensive, so he came up with this new and more affordable design.

An appeal was launched to raise funds for the tower and there were donations from the great and the good of the town as well as everyday folk including ‘1,750 factory girls who gave from their wages’. Work began in late 1921 and the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone was on 22 January 1922. The town was proud that most of the materials and contractors were local to Loughborough. As building work continued companies and individuals enthusiastically offered to sponsor the bells, and almost all are engraved with the name of the donor and often a dedication to a family member who died in the war.

The war memorial was officially opened in front of huge crowds on 22 July 1923. Field Marshall Sir William Robertson performed the ceremonial unveiling before the Bishop of Peterborough announced the dedication. And then of course came the moment they had all been waiting for: the bells began to chime. A programme of music included a piece written by Sir Edward Elgar especially for the occasion as well as his Land of Hope and Glory, Chopin’s March Funèbre and the National Anthem.

The bells are played via a clavier in the chamber below the bells (see the section of the building above) and Eric Jordan was appointed the Borough Carillonneur soon after the tower was opened. As carillons are so rare in Britain he had no experience in playing the bells, but went to Belgium for lessons with that country’s preeminent practitioner Chevalier Jef. Denny (who had played the bells at the opening of the Loughborough war memorial tower). Jordan’s regular recitals were hugely popular and his playing was recorded by His Master’s Voice.

Eric’s playing was recorded in 1928 and you can listen to it here https://archive.org/details/2-jordan-we-carillon-fantasia-popular-songs-hmv-b-2683/3+Jordan+WE+Carillon+-+Mendelssohn+HMV+B+2687.flac

The tower was restored in 2018 and reached its centenary on 22 July 2023 when there was a special service to mark the occasion. Alun Brignull of the Hedgehog Press lives within the sound of the bells, and made this type-picture of the war memorial on the day of the celebrations.

From the start it was planned to establish a museum in the lower rooms and that use continues today with a focus on Loughborough and the two world wars. The museum is open on Thursdays and Sundays in the summer months when the carillon is also played (check the website before visiting) https://www.carillontower.org.uk

And if you’d like your very own carillon you can download a cut-out-and-build model (try and make it a little less wonky than the Flâneuse’s attempt) https://www.carillontower.org.uk/model/tower.pdf

For much more on the history of the tower visit https://www.loughborough-rollofhonour.com/page95.htm

APOLOGIES to subscribers who did not receive an email alert last week. This was due to technical issues which, hopefully, have now been resolved. If you would like to see last week’s post about the Temple of Venus at Harewood please click here https://thefollyflaneuse.com/the-temple-of-venus-harewood-house-west-yorkshire/

Thank you for reading and please scroll down to the very bottom of the page if you would like to share any thoughts or comments.

Approaching the pretty little town of Market Bosworth from the east, the eye is caught by a richly-coloured red brick tower emerging from the trees. Approaching, it becomes apparent that the tower stands in the grounds of Bosworth Hall, now a hotel, and that the tower and a curious freestanding stone doorway are the surviving elements of a very attractive kitchen garden.

The ‘Pevsner’ (aka the Buildings of England) volume for Leicestershire, is of little help, merely mentioning a ‘three storey Italianate belvedere tower, presumably of the 1880s’. The Historic England listed building report also dates the walled garden to c.1885, but then goes on to mistakenly describe a ‘large clock tower’. Clearly further investigation is required.

Bosworth Hall was built in the late 17th century, and until the late 19th century was the home of the Dixie family. In 1789 the simple classical mansion was described as ‘the ugly seat of the Dixies’, by the prolific travel diarist the Hon. John Byng (later Viscount Torrington), a man of robust opinions. Judge for yourself…

In the early 1880s the house was put up for sale, and the eventual purchaser was Charles Norman Lindsay Tollemache Scott (1853-1938). Scott had recently married Lady Agnes Mary Manners Tollemache (1855-1912), heir presumptive of the Earl of Dysart (unusually, the title could pass down the female line). As a mark of respect for her status, and the substantial fortune she brought to their union, he had added her family name to his own. The couple immediately began a programme of building and renovation on the estate.

The kitchen garden to the east of the house was constructed in the middle of the 19th century, and by 1848 the walled enclosure was home to a range of glasshouses facing south. An exact date for the building of the tower has proved elusive: but presumably the work was contemporary with the remodelling of the range of glasshouses for the Tollemache Scotts from 1886. This work was undertaken by Messenger & Co. of Loughborough, a noted firm of ‘horticultural builders’ – that is glasshouse specialists. Work was largely complete in 1888, and the company’s  final account was settled tardily in 1889: Scott’s cavalier excuse was simply that he had been too busy and ‘just at present I am doing nothing else but writing cheques’. No accounts for the building of the tower seem to have survived, but it was extant by the time the 25″ Ordnance Survey map was revised in 1901-02.

Lady Tollemache Scott busied herself with charities and committees, and her husband was a typical country squire – he served as a Justice of the Peace and as High Sheriff, and took a keen interest in the local hunt, the Atherstone, which held the first meet of each season at Bosworth. So was the tower a hunting stand, designed for watching the chase? When offered for sale in 1883 the sporting advantages of the estate were extolled, and in 1892 Tollemache Scott had 260 fallow deer in his 330 acres, and had recently introduced red deer. And the Folly Flâneuse can’t help but mention that Lady Agnes was the daughter of Lord Huntingtower.

The hunting connection seems to be reinforced by the statue high on the tower. It represents Diana, goddess of the hunt, and is a copy of the Diana de Gabies, excavated at Gabii near Rome in 1792, and now in the Louvre (thanks to the Flâneuse’s good friend the Sculpture Specialist for quickly identifying the statue).

But if the tower did have a connection to the hunt, it was secondary to its much more practical principal purpose. All is revealed on an excellent information board provided by the hotel, with the support of the Market Bosworth Society: the tower actually houses a huge water tank which served the mansion, and continues to serve the hotel today. Water was pumped into the tower from springs in the park, and then fed by gravity into the house. A large (undated) plan of the water supply to the hall survives, showing the pipes ‘from the water tower’ that serviced a wash house and WC, the kitchen offices, and the stables.

So the tower is far too functional be be a folly, but very definitely qualifies for these pages as a magnificent ornament to the Bosworth Park landscape. As well as being a distant eye-catcher when approaching the hall, it was also an object on a walk from the house. After crossing a small canal by a pretty iron bridge, one entered into the Wilderness, a ‘magnificent Avenue of Limes and Elms, under which is carpeted in the Spring with snowdrops, aconites and bluebells’, from where the tower was a conspicuous feature.

Lady Tollemache Scott died in 1912. Her husband retired to the Cotswolds, and their only child, Wenefryde, sold the estate a year later. It was back on the market in 1918, and the sales particulars record the extensive range of glasshouses in the Kitchen Garden, which was sheltered on the north side ‘by the Water Tower, Gardener’s Bothies, Engine House…etc’. The agent stressed the quality of the ensemble, which had been built ‘after the style of the house and makes an imposing addition to the kitchen garden’.

Sadly the glasshouses were demolished as unsafe in the late 20th century, but the stone doorway was reprieved and now stands marooned in the kitchen garden enclosure.

As an added treat, a walk in the woodland behind the walled garden reveals a trail leading to a lovely little monument to a dog called Smut.

Bosworth Hall was sold in 1913, and after further changes in ownership the estate was bought by Leicestershire City Council in 1931. The hall was put to use as a hospital, and the wider estate became a Country Park. In the 1980s the hall was sold and converted into a hotel. The grade II listed walled garden and water tower await restoration and a purpose.

For more on Market Bosworth visit the impressive website of the Market Bosworth Society, whose help with this post is gratefully acknowledged https://marketbosworthsociety.com

Thank you for reading, and as ever your feedback is welcome. Please scroll down to the comments box below if you would like to share any thoughts.

In July 2018 planning permission was granted for a huge development to the west of Loughborough which will include 3,200 new homes, two schools and retail and industrial estates.

The site adjoins the Grade II listed park of the former Garendon Hall. The mansion was requisitioned in the Second World War and allowed to deteriorate in the subsequent decades. It was eventually demolished in 1964 and the rubble used in the foundations of the M1 motorway.

Although the house is gone, the park is still home to an important collection of ornamental structures including the Triumphal Arch (listed Grade I), a rotunda called the Temple of Venus (Grade II*), and an unusual obelisk where four stone balls sit on the plinth and support the tapering column (Grade II). All three were built by Ambrose Phillips in the 1730s, making them a very early and important group. Phillips had lived in Italy and used his knowledge of the architecture of Rome to design the park ornaments himself. Sadly, the Temple of Venus has long since lost its eponymous statue; the story passed down through the family being that it was destroyed by Luddites as they were marched through the park. Quite what the Luddites had against the goddess of love remains a mystery.

The good news is that restoration of the park and structures has been made a condition of the planning permission. The West of Loughborough ‘Design and Access Statement’ states that the park will be ‘opened up for public access and the monuments and parkland will be restored for the benefit of our community’. The Temple of Venus and the Triumphal Arch are on Historic England’s Buildings at Risk Register and will be the first to be restored.

Thanks to Michael Cousins for sharing his memories of a visit to Garendon many years ago.