Foll- The e-Bulletin of The Folly Fellowship

The Folly Fellowship is a Registered Charity No. 1002646 and a Company Limited by Guarantee No. 2600672

Issue 37: April 2011 Events calendar: The Follies of  21 May—visit to Wentworth Castle, Yorkshire to see some of the many changes that have occurred since we last paid a visit in 2006. After an intro- ductory talk by Patrick Eyres, we will tour the restored buildings. Details from [email protected]  18 June—A visit to Clearbeck Gardens in Lancaster, Kirkby Lonsdale to see Ruskin’s View and Andy Goldworthy’s Sheepfolds. Details from [email protected].  29 July—A visit to Tabley House at Knutsford and Eaton Hall in Cheshire. Details from [email protected].  24 September—Hereford- shire Ramble, with visits to Cadmore Millennium Tower, Westonbury Water Gardens and Hampton Court. Details from [email protected]

Landmark Trust Open Days:  22 May—The Gothick Temple at Stowe, Buckinghamshire.  17-19 June—Queen Anne’s Summerhouse at Old Warden, Bedfordshire.

The Folly Fellowship Articles, pictures, comments and feed- back for the e-Bulletin should be sent to [email protected]. All other correspondence should be sent to [email protected].

At Chalford, The Grove is a private house with a terraced gar- den containing a grotto and a summerhouse with three ogee- arches beneath a curved pedi- ment. Nearby, Wickham Grange Guest House has a 19th century gazebo, while another from the 18th-century sits in the grounds of Over Court at Bisley. Nether Lypiatt Manor is the former home of Prince and Prin- cess Michael of Kent, and now home to one of the Labour Peers. It is often described as a stately home in miniature, with a striking if understated retro-Classical ap- pearance and resembling an over- sized doll‟s house. It was built in iven its importance to the including those of Joseph Graze- 1693 for Charles Coxe, a Justice G Cotswold wool market, it brook who owned Stroud Brewery of the Peace for the Brecon, Rad- is surprising that little of Stroud‟s and who lived in the fort from 1802 nor and Glamorgan circuit, and trade wealth is reflected in its civic -42. It was then bought in 1868 by later the Member of Parliament for architecture. All that seems to be Alexander Halcombe who rebuilt it and then . changing now that the area is two years later on a grander scale. History describes him as a hang- home to Anne Robinson, Jilly Coo- The folly is celebrating its 250th ing judge who preferred the com- per and half the Royal family! But anniversary this year and owes its pany of animals to humans, so what the town lacks in civic build- survival to the racing driver and much so that on one occasion he ings is more than replaced by its aviator Robert Lamplough. In 1995 is said to have reprieved a local collection of follies. he bought the dilapidated folly ironsmith while he repaired the Looming over the southern part from the National Trust and set gates at Nether Lypiatt, and then of Stroud is the parish of Rodbor- about restoring it. Having done so, sent him to be hanged at Glouces- ough, where the Rev‟d Audry was he moved to Africa and sold the ter Jail when his work was done. rector until his death on 21 March folly for a reputed £2.25 million. His softer side was reserved for 1997, and where he wrote the last Nearby Rodborough Manor pets, including his favourite horse of his Thomas the Tank Engine burnt down in 1906. A century be- called Wag, who is said to have stories. The area is dominated by fore that the High Sheriff and walked by itself to Stroud to collect Rodborough Common and by Fort prison reformer Sir George Onesi- the judge‟s groceries. When it died George, a folly that is better pherous Paul added an eye- in 1721, the horse was buried in a known as Rodborough Fort. catcher (below) called The Gateway dingle to the south of the house The site of the miniature castle with the help of his architect, An- and the spot marked with a small enjoys panoramic views across thony Teck. Known as the Amber- obelisk. A plaque records: the seven valleys that converge at ley eyecatcher it has two round Stroud and on to the towers with gothic windows set My name is Wag that rolled the green, and South Wales in the distance, either side of a battlemented arch The oldest horse that ever was seen. giving it considerable strategic that has been filled in to create a My years they numbered forty-two, value. This was recognised by Iron family home—can anyone explain I served my Master just and true. Age man who had a settlement why people who live in eyecatch- here, and by the Romans who ers almost always plant trees The original plaque was stolen built a fort on the site to protect along the boundary to block the at some time before 1934, but was their encampment at Woodches- view? replaced in 1938. It is said that ter. It was also a fact that was not Wag‟s spectre still lost on Captain George Hawker haunts the house who in 1761 built a garrison fort and that the here in his attempt to maintain law sound of hoofs and order. His original building can be heard on housed 250 men and 32 canons, Christmas Eve. some being used to capture the The west en- Highwayman Tom Long before he trance to Lypiatt was hanged on the turnpike road Park is marked at a place called Tom Long‟s Post. with a handsome When Hawker died in 1786, the gothic gate lodge fort passed through many hands, that probably 2

dates from the 1840s (see left). elling of the park, and the other is In there is a the hard to find and very private three-sided pyramid in the tower above the ridge (see below). grounds of St. Mary‟s Church, with each side rep- resenting a member of the Holy Trinity. It sits on a circu- lar base that is symbolic of Eternity, and a lower hex- agonal stone carrying in- scriptions in memory of the Dunn family who built it in the mid 19th century. Woodchester Park is overshadowed by the unfin- ished mansion and has few follies. One is a pretty boat- house that was probably built during Repton‟s remod- The Tower at Woodchester Park

or a landscape park map of the park—in fact it is F Woodchester has a curi- marked on every map since ous dearth of follies, especially 1777. considering it was remodelled The Tower is a small rectan- in the 18th and 19th centuries gular stone building of two sto- when folly building was at its reys, sitting somewhat peril- mania. Perhaps some follies ously on the edge of the aptly were built, but there is precious titled Break Heart Hill. It is built little evidence to substantiate on a roughly-hewn stone base their existence. supposedly dating from as Woodchester‟s only folly is early as 1609 when the park the brilliantly positioned „Tower‟ was enclosed. The Tower‟s approximately halfway along castellated parapet suggests a the north edge of the long, nar- gothic mood in contrast to the row and very deep Inchbrook baroque window surrounds Valley. Somewhat overshad- with their Gibbsian keystones. owed by the legacy of its Other features include a promi- neighbour the extraordinary nent central chimney stack be- never completed Victorian hind the parapet and a little gothic-revival mansion by Ben- entrance porch (which looks jamin Bucknell, it is in fact the like a later addition) with the oldest extant building in the park. whilst illicit liaisons went on in the remains of a millstone or garden Very little is known of the Georgian mansion: both entrances seat as the front doorstep. Tower‟s history and origin, but ac- are now obscured by woods. In- I have not been inside, but from cording to the 1986 sale particular deed the Tower has an almost Big the sale particular photographs it it was a Royal Hunting Lodge built Brother command of the park with looks like a luxurious though com- c.1720. The regal connection ap- its panoramic vistas, and in re- pact dwelling. Lord Ducie commis- pears to be tenuous, although verse it makes a great eyecatcher sioned the architect Sir John George III and George V as from many positions. Soane to design a neo-classical guests of Lord Ducie supposedly It is not strictly a folly because prospect tower possibly for Wood- made the arduous carriage jour- it has been used domestically chester in 1797, and it is interest- ney up the side of the valley to the throughout the last century and ing to ponder on if this was in- Tower. never quite without a purpose tended as a replacement for this It is rumoured that the Tower throughout its history (albeit spy- humble little tower. was used to keep an eye on the ing!), and even as a summer- Oliver Bradbury entrances at both ends of the park house according to a Regency Reproduced from Follies Magazine #31 3

of a light or lantern resting above the giant capital, but this has never been proved. The Cheesewring In a final twist to the tale, when the Department of the Environ- ment listed it in 1953 (grade II), the description said it was erected in memory of one of Mr Marling‟s Monument favourite horses. Again we have no proof, but ‟s love of equines knows no bounds. he entry for Selsley (Glos) ciety for Industrial Archaeology. It These errors nonetheless have T has to be a contender for included a photograph of the thirty greater curiosity, given that the the shortest in H+M Follies, saying -foot (9.100 metre) high monolithic south face of the plinth states: simply: „Below Selsley, southwest column with an Ionic cap and sub- of Stroud, is an Ionic column on a stantial square pedestal standing This Column, plinth standing anonymously in a within the park directly below All carved at the field under Stanley Park‟ (p.246). Saints Church, Selsley. Cheesewring Stone Quarries What, no explanation of why it So how did it get there and near Liskeard, Cornwall, is there or when it was built? Since what does it commemorate? We I live nearby (Bristol), I decided to all love follies that have a good Stood at the western end investigate. story, and this one deserves more Of the I drove there in August, parked than the three lines it received in Great Exhibition, London in the village and looked down the that book. It turned out that it was 1851 steep slope of Stanley Park— worked in the Cheesewring Quarry And was placed here nothing! How tall is it? Three foot? near Liskeard (Cornwall) and was Perhaps it‟s less of a column and transported to London firstly by the By more of a columnette—no such Liskeard and Caradon Railway, Samuel Stephens Marling word, of course, but there ought to then the Liskeard and Looe Union 1852 be. Nor was it the large chimney Canal, and finally by sea where it on the A419, or the one at Stanley was eventually unloaded at Lam- The Cheesewring Granite Mill in King‟s Stanley. beth Wharf. There, the pedestal, Company is owned by the Duchy In the end, John Loosley of the cap and base were added and the of Cornwall and made a name for Stroud Local History Society came whole ensemble hauled by horse itself supplying stone for the West- to the rescue, and referred me to a and cart to Hyde Park where it minster and Tower Bridges and report by Theo Stening in the 2000 was displayed at The Great Exhi- the Albert Memorial. It closed in Journal of the Gloucestershire So- bition of 1851. the early 1950s. It stood outside the western The Column outside the Great Exhibition Hall in 1851. Photo: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam end of the main glass-roofed com- Richard Webber plex as part of the Raw Ma- terials, Mining, Quarrying, Metallurgical and Mineral Products Section. Next to it ccording to H+M Follies, was “an obelisk, several A Gloucestershire has many large naval anchors, a inscriptionless columns com- twenty-four-ton slab of coal memorating some forgotten event and other less pilferable or person. One stands in a field to objects!” It would be good the north of Park School, to know where the obelisk and was originally part of a 17th- ended up? century mansion that was demol- The column “was ac- ished in the 1950s. The column is quired at the end of the ex- believed to be one that was added hibition by the prominent by Sir John Soane during his al- mill-owner and clothier Mr terations of the mansion in 1789. Samuel Stephens Marling, There is also a group of Ionic col- who re-erected it in the umns in a garden on the B4208 at grounds of his recently pur- Staunton on the Gloucestershire- chased estate, Stanley Worcestershire border. Park, in 1852.” It still stands Unless otherwise stated, all pictures in this edition of the there today like an island Bulletin are taken by the editor or from the Folly Fellowship lighthouse, which may have Picture Library. We are grateful to all of the photographers for the generous use of their pictures. All views and com- been its intended purpose ments that are expressed are those of the authors and are because local folklore tells not necessarily the opinion or belief of The Folly Fellowship. 4