Vantage point
This tall brick tower, which dominates high ground near Chalbury Common in Dorset, is the kind of thing I normally leave to Peter Ashley, chronicler of Unmitigated England and connoisseur of bizarre and wonderful towers. But so memorable was my encounter with this building that I feel compelled to blog about it here. I could see the tower from the village, where I was visiting the strange, Vanbrugh-ish church, and made my way in its direction, soon realising that it must be some distance from the road. At first I could see no path to it, but then discovered that what I’d taken to be someone’s drive was actually the bridleway leading in the tower’s direction. So I was soon striding through bushes and trees following the sound of slowly moving hooves.
And then, once I was past the trees and the riders and into the bright spring sunshine, there it was: 140 feet of stunning mid-18th-century brickwork surrounded by sheep and lambs. Coming upon it like this, when my earlier view of it had been from some way off, confronted me instantly with its huge height and bulk, so the building was a surprise again, even though I’d seen it from afar, looking much smaller, only a few minutes before.
The tower was built by Humphrey Sturt, lord of the manor of Horton and MP for Dorset, and may have been intended as an observatory or to provide views of the local hunt making its way across the landscape. It’s so tall, and so bizarre with its combination of turrets and octagonal top, that it became known as Sturt’s folly. But let’s be grateful to Sturt for building this tower, which both enhances the view by its presence and gives us a pleasant, extra shock when we get up close to it and realise how big it really is. I for one am grateful that Mr Sturt wanted a good view, across the land or into the heavens.
Fans of John Schlesinger's film Far From The Madding Crowd will recognise this tower as the gloomy location for the cock fight. You could easily get into the tower then, and not long after filming I went in hoping to find a discarded Panavision lens or Terence Stamp's fags. I didn't.
ReplyDeleteYes, I remember the scene. The interior of the tower, which I couldn't get into, must be gloomy with those small windows, and perhaps didn't need much help from Schlesinger and co to make it gloomier. But gloom was far from my mind, I must say, on the sunny day when I visited the place.
ReplyDeleteHow very odd - what an extraordinary tower to erect in the middle of pasture!
ReplyDeleteLondonGirl: Yes, it's strange how isolated it is. But there are at least two reasons: being on top of a hill, it gave the owner the good views he needed; and that position also allowed him to show off - look, I'm so rich I can build this big tower in the middle of nowhere but visible form miles away!
ReplyDeleteI suppose it was too long ago for cocaine to be the way of showing you have too much money (-:
ReplyDeleteThere is no such thing as too much money!!!
ReplyDeleteHow very odd, indeed. And how very delightful. As is your blog. Even though grandparents emigrated from England and Ireland, my images of Great Britain come mostly from fiction. It's a treat to see it through your eyes. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Savvy Psychic, for your appreciative comment.
ReplyDeleteI don`t know what it is with towers and young ladies,but there is another example at Freston on the banks of the River Orwell,just below Ipswich.It consists of six rooms stacked one on top of the other,and was built in the 17th century so that a young daughter of a local landed family could study without distraction 6 educational subjects,each room being set aside for each discipline.
ReplyDeleteAnd all this before Led Zeppelin discovered a Stairway to Heaven.
Great story, Bucks, but I heard that this tower was even older, and might also be linked to another 'girl', Elizabeth I, who visited the area around about the time it was built. It's a stunning tower anyway.
ReplyDeleteMy feeling about apparently useless buildings like the tower is certainly (as people have suggested) to show how rich, scholarly and historically-minded the land owner is.
ReplyDeleteBut if I were planning a big summer picnic, carried by heaps of staff and enjoyed by adults and children, I would want to locate it next to some sort of garden building. Your tower looks perfect.
Hels: Buildings like these are indeed 'apparently useless' and the 'apparently' is important. Often they weren't originally useless, it's just that we no longer know or understand their original use and purpose. As Gwyn Headley and Wim Meulenkamp say in their book on follies, 'A folly is a misunderstood building'. We call them follies because we don't know what they were for, and often the use of the term says more about us than about the original builders.
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