153 Follies
In his fine book “Portrait of
Gower”, Wynford Vaughan Thomas describes travelling from Parkmill west along
the south Gower road, until after passing
Nicholaston Church
one is surprised by an apparent castle ruin at the junction with the fork to
the left downhill towards Oxwich.
This
ruin is known as Oxwich Towers, and although it might appear to date from the
twelfth or thirteenth centuries, it was built much later, after Thomas Mansel
Talbot had erected the mansion of Penrice Castle around 1776-1779.
Oxwich
Towers was built as a
folly in the 1790s to resemble part of a ruined castle.
A folly is defined as a building that might
be somewhat
eccentric in design or
construction, but is deliberately built for no purpose other than
ornamental, and which may have elements of fakery - such as
Oxwich Towers
which was deliberately built as a ruin.
Visitors to the National Botanic
Gardens in
West Wales would notice on the
skyline the folly known as Paxton’s Tower.
This appears to be a standard square mansion, whereas in fact it is
three-sided, having been built by Sir William Paxton, who had purchased the
Middleton Hall estate in 1790.
The
36-foot high tower may have been inspired by Admiral Nelson’s death at the battle
of Trafalgar in 1805, for marble tablets above each of the three entrances to
the tower dedicate it to his memory.
There
is a banqueting room on
the first floor, so Paxton’s Tower might presume to be a monument rather
than a folly.
In Derwen Fawr a belvedere stands
in
Saunders Way,
on a mound surrounded by trees.
Its
design was based on the Chapter House of Margam Abbey, for its central pillar
supports a fan-vaulted ceiling.
It was
part of Sir John Morris’s
Sketty
Park mansion when he
moved from Clasemont in 1806, though it may even have been built earlier.
The
Sketty Park
mansion was demolished in 1975.
Near Reynoldston a very different
type of folly was erected by John Lucas in the grounds of Stouthall, the
Georgian-style mansion built a few years after the
mansion of Penrice.
In the grounds Lucas sited a small stone
circle, roughly thirty feet in circumference, described in 1833 as “forming a
miniature representation of
Stonehenge”.
Rev. J.D. Davies, the historian of Gower and
minister of Llanmadoc and
Cheriton Churches, wrote in 1898 to Rev J.P. Lucas of
Rhossili: “your grandfather had some whims … (such as) the miniature
Stonehenge in the upper part of the park”.
The stones were local red sandstone
conglomerate, five upright and nine lying flat, around a roughly cubical block
fashioned to form a crude seat, and placed to afford a view of Stouthall half a
mile away.
The late Bernard Morris
described the stones as “a distinctive local curiosity”, but sadly most of them
were illegally removed in February 1996.
John Lucas added other features at Stouthall that could be termed
follies - making a cave in the grounds into a grotto, and building a
castellated Gothic-style stable-yard.
Although not visible from the
main road, there is a folly in a field west of Kilvrough Manor, a round tower
marked on Ordnance Survey maps as “Tower”.
Neath’s Gnoll estate has a possible folly in the
Ivy Tower,
built in 1795 by Molly Mackworth
as a viewing tower overlooking the cascades.
As mentioned,
Oxwich Towers,
which can more accurately be described as the lodge at the main gates to
Penrice Castle, was built as an extravagant
Gothic folly in the 1790s with the appearance of a ruined castle.
But this has been adapted to more practical
use, and is now available for hire, having been runner-up in the Best Unique
Retreat category by Unique Cottage Holidays.
With limestone flooring throughout, and fine views of Penrice park from
Gothic windows, it provides an unusual setting for a couple wishing to stay in
a genuine folly!
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