Derbyshire, Grotto, Temples, Towers

Art Out Loud, Chatsworth, Derbyshire

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The Grotto, Chatsworth

The Folly Flâneuse has just enjoyed a weekend at Art Out Loud, the annual festival of talks by artists, curators, collectors and writers at Chatsworth. In between talks there was plenty of time to revisit the wonderful gardens and Capability Brown landscape, as well as the magnificent mansion, which is looking incredibly fine after a decade of restoration. Highlights included artist Ed Kluz talking with Kate Hubbard, whose new account of Bess of Hardwick’s building mania is just out. Bess, who lived at Chatsworth in the second half of the 16th century, was probably the driving force behind the construction of the Hunting Tower, or Stand, which dominates the hillside above the house and gardens.

Folly, Obelisk, South Yorkshire, Temples, Towers

National Trust take on role at Wentworth Castle, South Yorkshire

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Some great news. A joint statement from Barnsley Council, the National Trust and the Northern College was issued early this morning announcing that the future of Wentworth Castle now ‘looks more secure’. The three bodies have been in discussion since the site closed in April 2017, and now plan on ‘working collaboratively’ towards a reopening in 2019. Wentworth Castle is the only Grade I listed Park in South Yorkshire and has an outstanding collection of follies and landscape buildings, including Stainborough Castle pictured here. The house (which houses the Northern College and is not currently open to the public), the gardens and the landscape buildings were restored at great cost, largely thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund, to secure their future. This new alliance must build on that work to ensure that Wentworth is enjoyed by the people of South Yorkshire and beyond.

The full press release is here:

https://www.barnsley.gov.uk/news/new-partnership-set-to-secure-the-future-of-wentworth-castle-gardens-in-south-yorkshire/

 

Folly, North Yorkshire

Polly the Folly, Studley Royal, Ripon, North Yorkshire

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Charlotte Graham Photography

The Folly Flâneuse can’t take the credit for this wonderful photograph but she can encourage you to get to Studley Royal before 4 November to see Folly!18, a collection of new follies dotted around the estate and complementing the Aislabie family’s 18th century towers, tunnels and grots. This is Polly by architect Charles Holland, a tongue-in-beak tribute to the Georgian mania for housing exotic birds within a landscape garden

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/fountains-abbey-and-studley-royal-water-garden/features/folly-in-the-water-garden-at-fountains-abbey-and-studley-royal

Derbyshire, Grotto

The Hermitage, Kedleston, Derbyshire

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Having fallen in to serious disrepair, the Hermitage at Kedleston was restored by the National Trust in 2016. The project was made more difficult because a large, and very lovely, plane tree has established itself alongside the building, which also makes (non-professional) photography something of a challenge.

Towers, West Yorkshire

The Ruin, Bingley, West Yorkshire

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‘The fast lock’d tower where ivy loves to creep,
Seems like the remains of some old Castle Keep’

So wrote the little-known Yorkshire poet Robert Carrick Wildon, in contemplative mood, at The Ruin in around 1850. His poem ‘Lines suggested while sitting at the Ruins’ was recently discovered and you can read it all here http://www.friendsofstives.org.uk/history/the_ruins.php

The Ruin, as it is called on the earliest OS maps, was built by Benjamin Ferrand and is inscribed with his initials and the year 1796. Also known as Ferrand’s Folly, or Harden Grange Folly, there is no explanation for why it later became known as St David’s Ruin. 

Folly, Monument, Temples, West Yorkshire

The Monument, Whitley Beaumont, West Yorkshire

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The Monument c.1900

Capability Brown drew up a plan for the landscape at Whitley Beaumont which was implemented by Richard Beaumont in the 1780s. The Monument was probably built as an eye-catcher from a new carriage drive, and existed by 1822 when it is shown on an estate map, but not named. It is marked as ‘The Monument’ on the 1850s ordnance survey map but no-one remembers why it was given this name, or what it might be a monument to.

Built of fragments of masonry, probably rescued from a remodelling of the hall, and embellished with battered statuary, this is a fabulous folly and was surely designed by the family themselves. It’s unlikely an eminent architect would wish to take the credit.

The monument fell into disrepair during the two world wars when the park was used for army training and mined for coal as part of the war effort. Today the fragments survive as a forlorn and overgrown pile of stones.

The park at Whitley Beaumont is strictly private.

Leicestershire, Temples

Garendon Park, Leicestershire

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Courtesy of a Private Collection

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.

Folly, West Yorkshire

The Folly Flâneuse at The Print Project

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First of the 4 runs through the press

The Folly Flâneuse recently enjoyed a great day at The Print Project in Shipley, West Yorkshire, learning all about letterpress printing. Owner Nick was patient, erudite and entertaining; chatting about the history of print as we worked on the practical stuff. So many common phrases come from the world of printing, he explained, so I was grateful not to be ‘out of sorts’ and was careful to ‘mind my Ps and Qs’. I know I ‘made an impression’ as here it is above. In fact I made a hundred impressions and it was hard work.

Buckinghamshire, Folly, South Yorkshire, Temples, Towers, USA

Follies: Architectural Whimsy in the Garden

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Photos: Rob Cardillo courtesy of Winterthur

‘What did Delaware?’, asks the old song. Well until January 2020 one part of the state casts off its brand new jersey and dons some brand new follies. Winterthur, near Wilmington, DA., is home to a gallery, museum and library set within 60 acres of garden and surrounded by a further 1,000 acres of park. Winterthur’s founder, Henry Francis du Pont (1880-1969), designed the garden with the architect Marian Coffin, an old friend from childhood. From around 1920 he embellished the estate with garden buildings relocated from nearby estates that were under threat, as well as creating his own follies from recycled architectural fragments.

County Durham, Lancashire, Monument

Clitheroe Pinnacle, Lancashire and Hamsterley Hall follies, Co. Durham

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This gothic fragment can be found in the public park surrounding Clitheroe Castle in Lancashire. It was given to the town by Captain Sir William Brass, the local MP, to mark the coronation of King George VI in 1937. The pinnacle was rescued from the masons’ yard after it was removed as part of the extensive repairs to the stonework of the Houses of Parliament begun in the 1930s. The ladies bowling team selflessly allowed their green to be converted into a rose garden to surround the pinnacle.