News


A folly called Ozanne Tower in Guernsey (described in Follies , Summer 2008) has recently been in the news as it may become the subject of a restoration project. There's a short video about it here.


Quex Park Tower was featured on a BBC4 programme about the History of Bells. Loughborough Carillion tower was also featured.


I've just come across a site devoted to windmills, but with a page devoted to 'mock mill's' which were built for show or pleasure and were never intended to grind corn. Interestingly there is even one recently built to disguise a mobile phone mast .


Rita Boogaart was on radio 4's ' Excess Baggage' on Staurday 19th Nov, talking about the new version of the book 'A272 -Ode to a Road', which now has 272 pages. You can hear it here - it's the first interview in the programme .


Gwyn Headley was on Radio 4 talking about follies on Monday 2nd Nov. It was very brief, but you can hear it again by clicking on the link. If you're curious as to where the underground ballroom mentioned in the interview was, then you'll be pleased to see that on 8th Nov an article about the it appeared in the Daily Mail, along with a plug for Gwyn's e-books. Further publicity in the form of a blog called 'The Dabbler' has also just appeared.


Greenwich has a unique folly known as The Rotunda which despite being Grade II listed in is danger of decay by neglect. Please write or do what you can to help save this building. Details can be found here and here.


Simon Sinkinson is a builder of Follies and other garden features. He has a major folly being built for next year's Chelsea Flower Show, so keep an eye on his website for details. He has a very curious blog too which is worth a look.


An artist called Ed Klutz is based in Yorkshire and has produced a series of artworks depicting local follies, quite recognisable but painted in a modern, very colourful, style. You can see them all at Hornseys art site and the few that haven't been sold can be found in their gallery at Ripon.


Another Yorkshire based artist (and also an FF member!), Sabine Little, has an interesting project coming up - I'll let her tell you about it : "I am a glass artist, and over the coming months and years, I plan to work on several follies, installing non-intrusive glass sculptures. I live close to Wentworth Castle, and one of my plans includes working on Stainborough Castle, creating a 6-8m trail of glass Rapunzel hair, for an installation in May/June 2012" . For more details see folliesforfollies.com .

Lucinda Lambton has a new book out called "Palaces for Pigs and other Beastly Dwellings". I suspect its an update of her previous book on buildings for animals called 'Beastly Buildings' but I haven't yet seen a copy.


The magazine English Homes has a feature on follies in its current edition with comments by Andrew Plumridge. Click on the picture and flick through the pages to page 84.


A previously unknown Gothic folly has popped up in an article in the Telegraph recently. It's in a back garden in Ramsgate, Kent.


The ice house at Compton Verney has recently been restored and its a particularly fine thatched example. I found this on the excellent English Buildings blog which has much about it to recommend. There are a few follies in there, but anyone with any interest in any kind of historic building will find something of interest here.

Another interesting blog is Peter Ashley's Unmitigated England . In an article on Landsown Tower he states "Yesterday I discovered Lansdown Tower, William Beckford's 1826 eyrie up on the downs above Bath. I'm keeping the photograph of it for the in-progress folly tower book". Elsewhere he hints that it includes 60 folly towers. The book is expected to come out on Goldmark Books. Watch this space.


I've just come across an interesting site devoted to the US fashion for octagonal houses (and it includes some round ones). Not follies but certainly curious and worth a look.


You can now book a tour of Irelands's best follies with Adams & Butler luxury travel specialists. The itinerary covers three locations in Southern Ireland and if you've got the money you can even have a personal driver/guide.


A tunnel has been unearthed at Larbert House in Falkirk Scotland which links the derelict mansion and an ornamental loch. It look like it may have been used by the family to get to the boathouse on the loch wihtout the staff seeing them. After all the stories of tunnels its good to hear of on e which actually exists.


Things are beginning to stir at Shaw Park in Holywell Green near Halifax. This neglected public park has a number of gothick buildings in need of restoration and a group called The Shaw Park Resoration Group is organizing volunteers to tidy up the park and is preparing plans for the larger job of restoring the buildings. These include a battlemented gateway, an aviary in the form of a tower and a folly consisting of three towers linked by a wall with gothic details.


FF member Karen Lynch has been talking to the Yorkshire Post and has inspired a series of articles about Follies. The first one talked about Karen and mentioned the Temple of Victory at Allerton Park.  The second covers Locke Park Tower in Barnsley. The third is about the Pig Sty at Robin Hood's Bay, the fourth is about Wentworth Castle and the last is about the Druid's Temple at Ilton. There's also an article called 'The Joy of Follies' in Country Life magazine (dated 29th December)


Linda Wade is showing a forthcoming book called Architectural Extravaganzas - the Follies of Eastern Europe on her site.


Nic Barlow is planning a new book on follies in America and he'd love to hear about any you may know about - you can see those he's collected so far on www.folliesofamerica.com. e-mail: nic


 

 

A new Folly at the Rushmore Estate in Wiltshire has now been completed. It was featured on the TV news on 10th July and you can read about it here.  At 60ft high, this is a major new folly, and one which is quite unique. Excellent!


Dracup's Cave, a terraced house in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, concealing a wonderous interior and a curious terraced garden, was recently up for sale. Read all about it here.


The Guardian had an article on follies in its 'Secret Britain' supplement on Saturday 4th April. You can read it here


Images of England, (part of English Heritage), has a new article up on its website called Focus on Follies which is well worth a look. Also on this site are pages of photographs of listed historic buildings, which can be purchased in various formats. They include quite few follies including some less well known ones like Boot's Folly in Bradfield.



 

Lord Berners has a new album in the shops now! Recorded at two performances in 1929 and 1954 this work called 'Follies & Facades' by Edith Sitwell, William Walton and Lord Berners, has just been released on CD. The cover features Faringdon Tower. Berners CD

 


If you like Jonathan Meades's architectural programmes, you be pleased to find that most of them are now watchable on YouTube - of particular interest to folly lovers are the programme about Stowe Gardens - and that on Brighton Pavilion. Also , at long last, a DVD set of Meade's various programmes is available- see Amazon


Flickr -the website where you can post your photos for all to admire, has some specialist groups which now include one on Follies, one on Garden Follies (essentialy sculpture and odd ornaments), and the Landmark Trust. There is some lovely work here, and some are by our very own members, so go and have a browse!
You should also have a look at Gwyn Headley's photos in Photolibra.  Be warned that it may well reduce your excitment at finding an obscure folly if you already know what it looks like, and there aren't many that Gwyn hasn't photographed.


Robert Fidler has built a castle shaped house in Surrey and then buried it beneath a huge haystack for four years to evade planning laws. It is now under threat of demolition. See story in the Evening Standard


A folly I hadn't heard of before at Duddon Hall, Broughton in Furnace in the Lake District has recently been converted to a home. See this article in the Telegraph


The discovery of what is probably the world's oldest grotto, on which countless others were based, has been partially uncovered at Palatine Hill, Rome.  Read all about it here


A new castle, carved from 30 tons of oak, has been created for the Duke of Norfolk as an ornament in the grounds of Arundel Castle . It's already causing controversy! See West Sussex Today                                                                   


Gwrych Castle – a Grade I gothick castle and a structure of national importance – has fallen into disrepair over the last 17 years. However it will soon be restored to its former glory accommodating over 90 luxury rooms, a world-class health & beauty spa, a fine dining restaurant and banqueting, wedding & conferencing facilities See the full story at http://www.gwrychtrust.co.uk/html/latest_news.html


Richard Vobes, a DJ from Sussex, produces a daily radio show, downloadable from his web page, and also makes short videos. One of these is of Racton Tower - a short sample is available here and if you like it, you can download the whole thing for the paltry sum of £2.  He's also done one called Oddball Eccentrics, which is free and last for 13 minutes - it features Mad Jack Fuller (Brightling), Duke of Portland (Tunnels) and King George IV (Brighton Pavilion). Very professionaly produced, this promises to be part of a series on eccentrics, so keep watching.
New - a video showing Pulborough Castle and the Toat monument has been added today (20th July). He's a busy man!


There are plans afoot to rebuild the 282ft tall water towers that once graced Crystal Palace in south London . Given that the original towers functioned only briefly in the 1850's to provide water for the fountains, and that they broke down so often they were redundant by 1870, then a plan to reconstruct them long after the palace was demolished is a story to bring cheer to any folly lover. See bbc news


Another tower in the planning, but this time an observation tower on Brighton seafront, unimaginatively called the Brighton Eye.  It has been passed by the planners and will stand 183m tall at the entrance to the old West Pier.  A doughnut shaped pod will rise vertically around a slim white tower.  Plans to rebuild the now very derelict West Pier are still lurking in the backgound with the revenue from the 'vertical pier' possibly being used to fund the 'horizontal pier'.
See west pier trust