Comments on: The Tower, Woolstone, Oxfordshire

By: Editor

Editor — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 10:49:09 +0000

In reply to Edward Mirzoeff. Good morning Edward. Yes, I should have said that the article was reprinted in the anthology ‘Coming Home’ in 1997. This was compiled by Betjeman’s daughter Candida Lycett Green

By: Edward Mirzoeff

Edward Mirzoeff — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 08:42:49 +0000

Thank you for this enjoyable piece. The 1938 Betjeman essay ‘Gentlemen’s Follies’ can be found reprinted in his prose anthology ‘Coming Home’ (1997).

By: Editor

Editor — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 08:42:36 +0000

In reply to Michael W.. Hello Michael and thanks for raising this issue. I did wonder if the builders knew Keble, or if the builder brother had even been involved. I only discovered this building through Betjeman’s article, and it took some time to find its history (or what little of it has been recorded). It’s interesting to think that it was only 60 or so years old when Betjeman first saw it.

By: Michael W.

Michael W. — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 07:50:54 +0000

Thanks for this post: I had never heard of this building & must have a look. The choice of polychromatic brick is interesting: controversial in Oxford when Butterfield designed Keble College, which was being built between 1870 and 1878. I don’t know whether it was considered a fashionable style by 1877, or controversial.