£75,000 Awarded to Browne's Folly Site
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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 34: £75,000 awarded to January 2011 Browne’s Folly site Upcoming events: 06 March—Annual General Meeting starting at 2.30pm at athford Hill (Wiltshire) is a leased the manor at Monkton Far- East Haddon Village Hall, B haven for some of our rar- leigh in 1842 and used the folly as Northamptonshire. Details est flora and fauna, including the a project for providing employment were enclosed with the Journal White Heleborine and Twayblade during the agricultural depression. and are available from the F/F website www.follies.org.uk Orchid, and for Greater Horseshoe He also improved the condition of and Bechstein‟s Bats. Part of it is the parish roads and built a school 18-19 March—Welsh Week- owned by the Avon Wildlife Trust in the centre of the village where end with visits to Paxton‟s who received this month a grant of he personally taught the girls. Tower, the Cilwendeg Shell House, and the gardens and £75,000 to spend on infrastructure After his death on 2 August grotto at Dolfor. Details from and community projects such as 1851, the manor was leased to a [email protected] the provision of waymark trails and succession of tenants and eventu- information boards telling visitors ally sold to Sir Charles Hobhouse about the site and about its folly. in 1873: his descendants still own The money was awarded from the estate. He was the author of the Biffaward Fund, the Ibstock Monkton Farleigh (an early history Cory Environmental Trust, the Big of the parish) published in 1882, Lottery Fund and donations from and earned money mining stone members. At a time when so many grants are being cut or withdrawn Wade Browne’s Folly From: A postcard c.1910 altogether, the award is good news and we add our congratulations to the Trust on its success. The Fellowship bought Wade Browne‟s folly from the Trust in 1998 and Paxton’s Tower, Carmarthen quickly restored its roof. Photo: Akoliasnikoff (Wikipedia) Since then vandals have broken through a range of locks and other secu- rity measures, and slowly damaged the interior. As a result, we are currently looking at the possibility of removing the metal door and blocking up the opening to prevent ac- cess until a full restora- tion can be made. The Folly Fellowship The tower was built in Articles, pictures, comments and feed- 1848 as a replacement back for the e-Bulletin should be sent for a Semaphore Tower to [email protected]. All other that originally stood on correspondence should be sent to [email protected]. the site. It was put up by Col. Wade Browne who from the quarries on his estate. In 1907 he altered the tower so he could use it as a hunting stand. Not far from Monkton Farleigh, Thomas Wheeler built an almost identical tower in 1850 as an ex- tension to Budbury Castle. It stood on the Winsley Road in Bradford on Avon until it was demolished in the early 1960s to make way for two houses. It is possible that this was a copy of Browne‟s tower and might show us how Browne‟s folly looked before Hobhouse made his alterations. Brown or Browne? A plaque in Monkton Farleigh Church and the Will of Squire Wade Browne the elder (held in Birming- ham), both spell the name with a ‘e’. Budbury Castle, c. 1900 From: www.freshford.com/folly.htm trains depart within minutes of one another. A further misunderstand- ing between signalmen saw two of those trains collide inside the tun- Oh, Mr Porter! nel and causing them to de-rail. As survivors tried to escape from the wreckage, their plight was made avid Porter lives in a which the trains could pass. worse by hot coals and scalding D unique home astride the The tunnel was completed in water exploding from the tenders main London to Brighton railway at 1841 at a cost of £90,000, taking and raining down on them in the Hassocks (East Sussex). Not sur- 6,000 men a total of three years to darkness. Many of the injured prisingly, it is a bit of a celebrity dig the mile and a quarter long were trapped for several hours and featured in this month‟s edi- route. Early passengers travelling before help arrived and they could tion of Sussex Living magazine. in open carriages of the day were be rescued. 23 people died at the In the 1830s, when the London terrified by the long, dark tunnel, scene and were eventually taken to Brighton Railway Company was so the railway company sought to back to Brighton Station where planning the route of its main line, make the journey more comfort- they were laid out for identification the local farmer insisted that if the able by installing ceiling-mounted on boards and trestles. railway was to be taken across his gas lights. Unfortunately, these Four years after the accident land, the front of the tunnel should were snuffed out by passing trains occurred, Charles Dickens used it be given a pleasing appearance. It so it became necessary to engage as the basis for his ghost story was a challenge that was met by a tunnel keeper to relight them. The Signal Man. He supported it David Mocatta as a diversion from In an attempt to provide the with details from another accident his usual work of designing railway tunnel keeper with a place to live, at Staplehurst in which he was stations. His solution was a mock the railway company appointed J. involved personally. So trauma- medieval facade in Caen Stone, U. Rastrick to design a cottage tised was he by the incident that with a giant Gothic arch through which he placed centrally between he is said to have lost his voice the octagonal tur- and could never again cope with rets. Building work rail or hansom cab journeys. Not was completed in surprisingly, the incident fuelled 1850, and is now stories about ghosts, with some David Porter‟s people claiming that they can still home. hear the screams of the injured. In 1861 the tun- When Network Rail renovated nel was the scene the cottage and sought a tenant, it of a major accident was marketed as “an ideal home that left 200 people for a trainspotting insomniac.” In either injured or the Sussex Living article David dead. It originated tells us that he had to „fight off from a signal fail- hordes of keen trainspotters to ure at Brighton secure the cottage and admits he which let three has become very attached to it.‟ 2 Jigsaw News Wanstead Stripped wenty-five years ago the ince it was T Benevolent Confraternity of S excavated in Dissectologists was launched by a the early 1990s, the group of experts. Far from being a grotto at Wanstead society for surgeons, the BCD is a Park has been cov- club for people who share a pas- ered by a blanket of sion for jigsaw puzzles, especially ivy. Now, under the the early wooden ones. Having a direction of archae- family connection with the society, ologists from the I had hoped that it would help me Museum of London, find a collection of jigsaws pictur- a group of volun- ing follies but my search has been teers have cut away in vain. The Grotto before clearance of the Ivy the ivy to reveal the stonework Some progress was made this Photo: Brian Gotts—www.geograph.org.uk beneath. month when Paul Brooker told me The grotto was built in 1761 as Wanstead House was demol- of a website (www.jigzone.com) where you can upload your own part of the gardens at Wanstead ished in 1824, but the grotto sur- picture and complete the puzzle House. It has been attributed to vived both this and a further plan on screen. It includes a sample William Kent, but „only on the to remove it in 1835. In 1884 the puzzle showing a gloriette (puzzle grounds that he decorated the grotto was completely destroyed in 73055D549864), and a chance to ceiling of the Great Hall there in a fire, two years after the park had embed your chosen picture puzzle 1721‟ (H+M Follies). It originally been opened to the public. Only on the website. Another gloriette served as a boathouse and had a the lake facade survived, and it is appears on a puzzle of a tranquil first floor room that was said to this which has been revealed in all scene produced by Kerrison Toys. have been decorated with feldspar of its naked glory. Considering how picturesque and coloured glass, and with floors they are, it is surprising that follies that had been laid out in geometric An excellent account of the grotto and its do not feature among the list of patterns using pebbles. Candles in history has been written by Mike Cousins castles, cathedrals, locomotives, mirror-lined alcoves illuminated it and is published in Follies 68; 6-11 rose-framed cottages and other all together with small openings in (Autumn 2007) and on the Wanstead landmarks used by jigsaw makers. the end walls overlooking the lake Parklands Community Project website at I‟ll keep looking. and glazed with coloured glass. www.wansteadpark.org.uk English Heritage, is a former pupil of Kimbolton School and recalls Landmark Appeal looking at the folly on a daily ba- sis.