Faringdon Tower, follies and folly towers at follytowers.com (original) (raw)

High on Faringdon Hill in the middle of a Celtic ring camp stands Lord Berner`s folly, which was built in 1935 and is reckoned to be the last folly tower to be built in the UK.
It is 100 feet tall, and was built against everyone's wishes, as initially permission was refused, but later allowed, providing the top was no higher than 3 feet above the surrounding trees.

An Objecting Admiral
Apparently the story goes, that an objector said it would spoil his view of the countryside, whereupon the architect insisted it was so far away from the objector's house, that he would need a telescope to see it. The objector, who unfortunately was a retired Admiral, replied that he always used a telescope to view the countryside anyway !

Dispute Over The Design
Lord Berner gave the job of designing the building to his architect friend Lord Gerald Wellesley, and then promptly went off to Rome for a holiday.
However Lord Berner`s idea of a folly tower was one based on Gothic design. The architect thought otherwise though, and Lord Berner was furious when he returned to see an almost finished `plain` looking tower.
This is the reason for the majority being a plain square shape, with a change of style being made after Lord Berner`s intervention. This being the octagonal top part with its mock battlements.

Interior
The interior like so many folly towers is hollow, with in this case a solid wooden stairwell winding its way around the inside wall. At the top the only room in the tower has 3 windows in each side, a narrow staircase leads from this viewing room to the octagonal area above, this has 8 narrow windows and from here there is a wooden ladder to a trap door that opens onto the roof area. The view allows you to see parts of 5 counties on a good day.
The height also prompted Lord Berner to erect a sign warning that those who wished to commit suicide, do so at their own risk. Was this black humour, or a consequence of the fact that a suicide attempt was actually illegal in the past?

Another site
Stephen Oliver has a photographic site with some interesting photo's of the tower as well. Point your browser to his site

Visiting:-

It was closed after the war and restored in 1983 and is now open on Easter Sunday and then every first Sunday in the month until October.

Entrance fee was sixty pence in July 2000, absolute bargain, and take your binoculars on a clear day.

Further Photos: