Few follies can be said to have directly contributed to coastal erosion, but one example can be found in the lovely little village of Hunmanby, near Filey. Early in the 19th century Humphrey Osbaldeston, of Hunmanby Hall, took stone from the rocky coastal outcrop called Filey Brigg, and used it to erect this rustic entrance arch.

Humphrey Osbaldeston died in 1835, aged 92, and his obituary in the Gentleman’s Magazine remembered him as a ‘very worthy man, with some peculiarities and eccentricities of character’. Sadly, the publication failed to elaborate on what these quirks and quiddities might have been. Osbaldeston seems to have been the archetypal squire; filling his time with horses and hounds when he was not serving the community as a Justice of the Peace, or raising a regiment of volunteer militia to protect the east coast from a French invasion.

The lodge was built in the last years of the 1820s, using the stone which had been ‘blown up’ into manageable pieces at Filey Brigg. The finishing touch was a large fossilised ammonite as a decorative feature above the arch. An account of the arch, written very soon after it was constructed, explains why the stone from the coast was chosen by Osbaldeston: ‘the uneven surface of the stone, caused by the joint action of the sea and the sun, give the appearance of exquisite carving, and has really an admirable effect’.

There was some complaint about the use of the ‘pilfered’ stone, but the practice continued until the early 19th century, with Osbaldeston’s heirs accused of ‘stripping the headland’. Locals complained they didn’t even own the land, but merely drew on ‘ancient musty manorial rights’. By 1911 the authorities had ‘interfered’, and Filey Brigg was no longer used as a quarry. The lodge however remains standing as a monument to Osbaldeston, and as it was described over a century ago, a ‘beautiful relic of feudal days’.

Barbara Jones painted two watercolour views of the arch, one of which was included in the 1974 revised edition of her book Follies and Grottoes. The variant unpublished version is illustrated here.

Hunmanby Hall became a school in 1928, and was converted into apartments after the school closed in 1998. By that date the lodge had deteriorated, and a storm had brought down part of the structure, including the ammonite. It has since been converted into ‘Hunmanby Follies’, with a holiday cottage to each side of the arch.

For stays at Hunmanby Follies see http://www.hunmanbyfollies.co.uk

A brief post this week as The Folly Flâneuse has been racing around at a somewhat faster pace than her usual omnipercipient strolling. However, the lovely images by John Piper will make up for the paucity of words.

After the Easter heatwave the weather broke just as The Folly Flâneuse arrived at Stowe – the photo above shows the view from the grotto, which gave some much needed protection from one of the heaviest of the showers. On the plus side, no-one else was about, and The Folly Flâneuse had Stowe all to herself.

The (re)visit was inspired by the image below, which featured in a recent exhibition put together by Neil Jennings Fine Art.

John Piper (1903-1992) first visited Stowe in the 1930s when he summed up the faded glory of the gardens with the evocative phrase ‘pleasing decay’. In that decade it was suggested that a book of views of Stowe would be well-received, but although Piper remained a regular visitor to the park, and produced many views in a range of media, the project stalled for decades.

Eventually, in 1983,  John Piper’s Stowe was published as a limited edition by the Hurtwood Press, in association with the Tate Gallery. The foreword was written by Piper himself and the images were accompanied by a commentary by Mark Girouard, who described the park as ‘a diamond which flashes in a different way, depending on the angle one looks at it.’

To give Piper the final word on Stowe: ‘There is no end to the things one can paint there, and dream about.’

John Piper’s works can be seen in collections across the country and further afield. His love for follies was not restricted to Stowe and he painted Clytha Castle in Wales, Dinton Folly in Buckinghamshire and the buildings at Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire, amongst many others. There’s a gallery dedicated to his life and work in the lovely River and Rowing Museum in Henley on Thames https://www.rrm.co.uk/visit/galleries/piper-gallery/

Start saving now for a selling (and loan) exhibition at London’s Portland Gallery in September http://www.portlandgallery.com/exhibitions/667/about/john-piper

More on Stowe here https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stowe