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News BBC Countryfile will feature Hawkstone Park this Sunday (7th Sept) at 11 am on BBC 1
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 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! 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 Hunting Tower at Chatsworth has been opened as a holiday home for four people. Details here 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 News of a large scale fantasy village within a garden centre near Wigan has just reached us. There's an article about it on the BBC newpage here. It was featured on the One Show on BBC1 on Weds 27th Feb. The BBC has recently screened a series of small films about follies in the West Country - they are available to be viewed online here 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. National Trust have restored the Tower at Blickling, Norfolk and it is now available as a holiday home. It looks magnificent! See National Trust cottages 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'.
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