Belchamp Walter, in Essex (but very close to the Suffolk border) is the quintessential English village with a manor house and church at its heart. But on a field boundary behind the hall stands a less common feature – a curious, and very clever, folly facade.

The folly stands on a public footpath, and approaching it along the field edge one is surprised to find a very narrow structure, but stepping back the full facade can be appreciated. The design is ingenious: the light falling on the walls, which break in and out casting shadows, gives the folly the appearance of a more substantial ruined structure when seen from even a short distance.

The history of the folly seems a little difficult to establish. The Historic England list entry (grade II) keeps things vague, calling it a ‘nineteenth century’ eye-catcher. Frustratingly, it is not mentioned at all in the two-part Country Life article published in 1959. The present owner of Belchamp Hall, Charles Raymond, believes it to have been erected by his ancestor John Mayne St Clere Raymond (1814-1893) in around 1879.

Maps don’t give any answers as cartographically the folly seems not to exist. It is not shown on the beautifully detailed tithe map of 1846, or an estate plan of 1867, so the initial assumption is that it was not there at that date. But neither can it be found on the Ordnance Survey map published in 1880, or the updated map issued in 1924, or indeed the modern map. All that is marked on all of the maps is a slight deviation in the field boundary, as shown above.

If the folly was erected in the 1870s then a possible contender for the designer of the folly is the architect Woolmer Robert Firmin (1847-1885), who lived in Belchamp Walter where his father farmed at Fishers Farm. Firmin is known to have designed the village school for John Mayne St Clere Raymond in 1870, with work complete in 1872.

One legend attached to the folly suggests that it was built to stop light reflecting off the glasshouse at Over Hall, a few fields away, and annoying the occupants of the drawing room at Belchamp Hall. It’s a great story attached to a most mysterious folly.

Belchamp Hall will be familiar to readers who remember the television series Lovejoy, which was broadcast from 1986 to 1994. The hall was home to Lovejoy’s friend, Lady Felsham.

The Flâneuse is happy to report that the folly has been consolidated and will remain a landmark for many years to come.

A note on location: Belchamp Walter stands in Essex, but its postal town is Sudbury, only a few miles away in Suffolk. The village council solves this identity crisis with the snappy tagline ‘Belchamp Walter, Sudbury, Suffolk. A village of Braintree District, Essex’.

The Flâneuse is amazed to find that this is her 350th folly story. So an extra big thank you to all who read her weekly ramblings. There’s a comments box at the foot of the page where you can share any observations, and further information is of course always very welcome.