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 35: February 2011

Events calendar:

 06 March—Annual General Meeting starting at 2.30pm at East Haddon Village Hall, Northamptonshire—see F/F website www.follies.org.uk Pre-visit to Haddonstone Show Garden, East Haddon

 9 March—Illustrated Lecture and Reception by the Geor- gian Society of Jamaica, look- ing at Jamaica’s historic buildings. Tickets = £15 each.

Information from Felicia Pheasant, Holdfast House, Haslemere, Surrey GU27 2EU (enclose SAE) or felicia.

[email protected] The Landmark Trust Landmark The  18-19 March—Welsh Week- end with visits to Paxton’s Photo: Tower, the Cilwendeg Shell House, and the gardens and grotto at Dolfor. Details from [email protected]

 29 March—Birkbeck Garden Pineapple Dunmore The History Society Annual Lec- ture by Andrew Plumridge on Follies. Tickets = £10 each. Starts at 6.30pm at the Art Pineapple Follies Worker’s Guild, 6 Queen Square, Bloomsbury, London WC1N. Details from n 1640, long before they had His entry suggested that the arrived in Britain, John Parkin- pineapple was a recent discovery, [email protected] I son (Royal Botanist to Charles I) but it had actually been known in described a fruit in the Theatrum some parts of Europe for almost The Folly Fellowship Botanicum that was ‘Scaly like an 150 years by then. It was discov- Artichoke... but more like to a cone ered by Christopher Columbus Articles, pictures, comments and of the Pine tree’, and went on to who is said to have found it on the feedback for the e-Bulletin should be sent to [email protected]. All name it a ‘Pineapple’ because it Caribbean island of Guadeloupe other correspondence should be sent was ‘so sweete in smell...tasting during his second voyage to the to [email protected]. as if Wine, Rosewater and Sugar New World in 1493. There he were mixed together.’ noted a strange fruit that was

juicy, sweet and capable of stay- eas more if it was cut or eaten. By the end of the eighteenth ing fresh at sea for much longer As part of the hysteria sur- century, the pineapple had be- than most others. rounding the fruit, homeowners come a symbol of wealth and of When he returned home with a had pineapples sewn onto table generous hospitality. It maintained shipment of what Columbus called napkins, into curtains and even its high status until the end of the the piña de Indes (Pine of the Indi- stencilled onto walls. It encour- Victorian era when tinned pineap- ans), it caused a sensation. Its aged Josiah Wedgewood to pro- ples began to arrive on steam rarity, however, made it expensive duce a range of pineapple pottery ships from the Caribbean and the so something that could only be and earthenware in the 1760s for fruit became available to the enjoyed by the rich and influential, use at the dinner table. masses. often appearing at the most impor- tant banquets and celebrations of the period. In an attempt to capitalise on The Dunmore Pineapple its high value, and to satisfy the demand for them, Europe’s gar- deners did all they could to grow pineapples on home soil. It took nearly two centuries before they finally achieved this, mainly through the development of the ‘hothouse method’ of horticulture. So significant was this achieve- ment that in 1675, Charles II was happy to be painted by Hendrik Danckerts (below) receiving one of the first English-grown pineapples from his head gardener, John

Rose.

Giannandrea on Wikipedia Giannandreaon Photo: Photo:

n architectural terms, the pine was said to be fond of a joke, I -apple as a decorative motif clearly took this one step further. reached its peak with the building Even in the 1770s, pineapples of the stone folly at Dunmore Park were nothing new in Scotland, (Stirlingshire). At 16m in height, it having been cultivated there for George Washington first tasted stands above an earlier, single- almost 30 years by then. It is likely the pineapple in Barbados in 1751 storey garden pavilion that is said that their cultivation had been es- and immediately named it his fa- to have been completed in 1754 pecially successful on the Dun- vourite tropical fruit. A little later, in by the 4th Earl as part of the large more estate, but it is difficult to tell 1770, Captain James Cook took walled garden. because the estate papers for that the fruit with him and introduced it Curiously, the keystone over period are missing. to Hawaii, but it was not cultivated the entrance door has the date Equally intriguing is that the commercially there until the 1880s 1761 carved on it, and a further name of the architect is unknown. when transporting the fruit became carved heart and inscription FIDE- Some have attributed it to Sir Wil- easier. LIS IN ADVERSIS was added in 1803 liam Chambers, but we know from Those who could afford pineap- to commemorate the marriage of his papers that he was working in ples made a point of displaying the the 5th Earl to the daughter of the London at the time and the folly is fact by having them carved on Duke of Hamilton. not mentioned in his writings, as gateposts, weathervanes, door The popular story is that the might be expected if it was his. frames and even atop newel posts roof was added in 1777 when the In 1973 the Landmark Trust on staircases, where many are still 4th Earl returned home after serv- took out a long lease on the build- put today. The demand was so ing as Governor to New York and ing and set about restoring it: pho- great that in Georgian times any Virginia. Tradition has it that tographs in Barbara Jones’s book hostess who could not afford to wealthy New York merchants Follies and Grottoes (Constable, buy a pineapple for her dinner ta- would put pineapples on the gate 1974) show how dilapidated it had ble simply rented one for a guinea posts of their houses to announce become. Today it can be rented as a night (the equivalent of £5,000), that they were home and available a holiday home, albeit said to have but had to pay a fine of two guin- to meet with friends. The Earl, who a 2-year waiting list. 2

Lastly, Convent Lodge at Tong (Shropshire) has a pair of gate Other Pineapple Follies piers that Barbara Jones included in her book Follies and Grottoes (Constable, 1974, pp.126-7) be- he Norfolk village of Holt Standing on an isolated spot cause they were ‘too crazy and T owes much to the fact that above the parish of Grafton, on too curious to leave out.’ Standing ‘On May-day, 1708, a great part of the north Wiltshire Downs, is a about 2m high, the square piers the town was destroyed by a short brick tower topped with a are topped with pyramids on which dreadful fire, so fierce that the domed roof. Some of the headers climb swags of ‘fruit and leaves butcher’s could not save...the in the dome are expressed and it and flowers, artichokes and meat on their stalls’ (A General His- has a crenellated top that combine grapes, all joining at the top in a tory of the County of Norfolk, 1829, vol.2). to give the building the appear- cluster of pointed leaves on which What emerged from the ashes ance of a pineapple. sits a pineapple.’ was a new Georgian village that is The building is actually a pump now much admired. house to an underground reservoir At the centre of the village is an and was built in 1899 by William unusual obelisk that is topped with Corbin Finch, the then Lord of the a stone pineapple. It was originally Manor. His gift was significant in one of a pair of gate piers forming that Wexcombe was one of the the entrance to Melton Constable first villages to have its own pri- Park. Both were adapted in 1757, vate water supply. A simple dedi- with one given to Holt and the cation stone above the door to the other taken to Dereham. tower is carved in Gothic majus- At the start of World War II, in cules and reads: an attempt to confuse the enemy, the town of Dereham dismantled WEXCOMBE WATERWORKS their obelisk and put the stones THE GIFT OF WILLIAM CORBIN FINCH down a well; they are still there. In AD 1899 contrast, the people of Holt simply whitewashed theirs. The Holt Obelisk, Norfolk Photo: Mark Oakden on www.tournorfolk.co.uk

 The Gatepiers at Convent Lodge, Tong Drawing: Barbara Jones, Follies and Grottoes  The Wexcombe Pineapple Photo: Brian Robert Marshall on Geograph Miniature Edwardian Follies

he Edwardians are In 2009, one of these T not remembered stands appeared in a New for building large numbers York sale room and was of follies, largely because sold for an undisclosed their opportunities were sum. Carved in wood in decimated by the depres- 1910, the Gothick fancy sion and the Great War. stood 1.500m high and on They nonetheless appreci- a 0.750m diameter base. ated the beauty of plants Its appearance has trig- and had a love of display- gered a revival of interest ing them at their best. in this largely forgotten art One of those ways was form. on display stands, some of Also sold in 2009 was which were shaped like miniature an obelisk-shaped bird cage that follies. They allowed prized horti- was designed by Frederick cultural specimens to be shown off Weinberg in the 1950s, and sold to great effect in winter gardens, through the Metro Interiors Gallery conservatories and sitting rooms. in Washington (DC) for $1,800. 3

Foshay’s Obelisk in Minneapolis

special March was commissioned hen he was a teenager, from the great John Philip Sousa W Wilbur Foshay (1881- at a cost of $20,000. Two months 1959) was taken to Washington to later, when Wall Street crashed see the sights, including the and Foshay’s cheque to Sousa monument to his hero, George bounced, it revealed how his com- Washington. So impressed was he pany was propped up by paper by the 170-metre tall obelisk, that profits, and he went bust. He lost he vowed to build one as his office everything, including the tower, if ever he had enough money. and was later sent to jail for mail During the 1920s, he began a fraud. successful business buying utility Fortunately for Foshay he companies and selling stock in his made enough influential friends to own, allowing him to quickly turn see that he wasn’t in jail for long. an initial $6,000 loan into a vast Among them was Franklin D. Roo- profit. By 1927, those profits were sevelt who commuted the sen- large enough to fulfil his dream, so tence from 15 to 5 years, and Foshay commissioned Magney Harry S. Truman who pardoned and Tusler (architects) to design him altogether in 1947. After that Foshay Tower on 821 Marquette Ave, Minnea- for him the first skyscraper in the Foshay moved to Salida (CO) polis. Photo: Bobak Ha’Eri on Wikipedia Mid-West. At a little over 136m in where he did much for the com- height, their plan was for a steel munity and wildlife conservation, and reinforced concrete frame but stopped building follies. Can you help? building that was clad in limestone A group of Minneapolis resi- ndy Hebden’s photo album from Indiana. It cost $3.7 million to dents recently raised the money to on Flickr includes a picture build and included a luxurious of- pay Sousa, so the March could be A (below) of a single-storey tower fice and apartment for Foshay on performed again. As for the tower, that he saw in Balham. He would the 27th and 28th floors. it is now a 5-star hotel; the Art like to know more about it, and in To mark its opening in August Deco lobby has been refurbished particular whether it is a folly? 1929, Foshay spent $116,000 on and Foshay’s office has become a If you know the building or any- a lavish three-day party, paying for bar. A museum has also been thing about its history, please let senior politicians to attend and added at the top alongside a view- us know at the usual address giving them each a gold watch to ing platform. It was listed as a Na- ([email protected]) so mark the occasion. Half-naked tional Monument in 1977. we can pass it on. Thank you. girls danced in attendance, and a Malcolm Tempest Is it a folly?

ver the past few months I O have received a number of e-mails asking whether the tiny thatched building at the junction of the A435 and A436 near Coberley (Glos) is a folly? According to Cotswold District Council and a gentleman on his way to the nearby Hungry Horse Inn, it is actually a tollbooth that used to serve the Crickley Hill to Unless otherwise stated, all pictures in this edition of the Frogg Mill Turnpike in the 19th Bulletin are taken by the editor or from the Folly Fellowship century. It has recently been re- Picture Library. We are grateful to all of the photographers for the generous use of their pictures. All views and com- stored and given a new thatched ments that are expressed are those of the authors and are roof. not necessarily the opinion or belief of The Folly Fellowship. 4