Hadlow Castle

Last updated

Hadlow Castle
May's Folly, Hadlow Castle, Kent.jpg
Hadlow Castle, 1977
Kent UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location of Hadlow Castle within Kent
Alternative namesMay's Folly
General information
Type Folly
Architectural style Gothic Revival
Town or city Hadlow
Country United Kingdom
Coordinates 51°13′25″N0°20′20″E / 51.22361°N 0.33889°E / 51.22361; 0.33889
Construction startedc1785
Completed1852
Renovated2011–13
Demolished1951 (apart from tower and courtyard buildings)
Height53 m (175 ft)
Design and construction
Architect(s) George Ledwell Taylor

Hadlow Castle was an 18th-century country house in Hadlow, Kent, England, built in the fashionable Strawberry Hill 'Gothic' style. The house was gradually enlarged and extended during the 19th century and finally demolished in the 20th, apart from a prospect tower and ancillary buildings. The surviving Grade I Listed Hadlow Tower, locally known as May's Folly, was restored in 2013.

Contents

History

Entrance Arch, High Street, restored in May 2020. 51deg13'25''N 0deg20'16''E / 51.2235degN 0.3379degE / 51.2235; 0.3379 Hadlow Castle Gatehouse 2020.JPG
Entrance Arch, High Street, restored in May 2020. 51°13′25″N0°20′16″E / 51.2235°N 0.3379°E / 51.2235; 0.3379

Hadlow Castle replaced the manor house of Hadlow Court Lodge. It was built over a number of years from the late 1780s, commissioned by Walter May in an ornate Gothic style. The architect was J. Dugdale. [1] His son, Walter Barton May inherited the estate in 1823, and another inheritance in 1832 from his wife's family. He added a 53 m (175 ft) octagonal tower in 1838, the architect was George Ledwell Taylor. A 40 feet (12 m) octagonal lantern was added in 1840 and another smaller tower was added in 1852. This was dismantled in 1905. Walter Barton May died in 1858 and the estate was sold. Subsequent owners were Robert Rodger, JP, High Sheriff of Kent, in 1865. He died in 1882 and the castle was bought by Dr. MacGeagh, a Harley Street specialist in 1891. He would drive in his carriage to Tonbridge and catch the train to London thus being an early commuter. The castle passed to T E Foster MacGeagh and he sold it in 1919 to Henry Thomas Pearson, whose family occupied it until 1946. [2] During the Second World War it was used as a watchtower by the Home Guard and Royal Observer Corps. [3] The unoccupied castle changed hands several times after the Pearsons left, and was demolished in 1951, [2] except for the servants' quarters, several stables and the Coach House, which was saved by the painter Bernard Hailstone. The Tower was already a Listed Building, having been listed on 17 April 1951. [4] Now the entrance gateway and lodges of the Castle still stand - a heavy Gothic presence on the street - as does the Stable Court with two turreted pavilions, which are all in private ownerships, and new homes have been built in the grounds.

Tower

Hadlow Tower, known locally as May's Folly, is a Victorian Gothic tower, and one of the largest in Britain at 53 m (175 ft). [5] The top 40 feet (12 m) is an octagonal lantern.

The Grade I listed tower was badly damaged in the Great Storm of 1987, and the lantern was removed in 1996. [6] The tower's condition then worsened rapidly. The cost of repairs was estimated at £4 million. In July 2006, Tonbridge and Malling borough council announced that it would issue a compulsory purchase order (CPO) on the tower in an effort to save it. [7] This CPO was confirmed in March 2008 by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with plans for the council to take possession of the Tower and transfer it to the Vivat Trust in late 2009, so that the necessary repair and restoration work can be undertaken; plans included short-term holiday accommodation, with a separate exhibition centre on part of the ground floor. [8]

In January 2011, it was announced that the tower had been compulsorily purchased by Tonbridge and Malling District Council; the council sold it to the Vivat Trust for £1. Restoration of the tower, including the replacement of the lantern commenced in February 2011, with completion then scheduled for September 2012. The project was funded by grants from English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund. [9] The latter granted £2,000,000 of the estimated £4,000,000 restoration cost. After restoration, the tower offered holiday accommodation, [10] with public exhibition space on the ground floor. On 24 February 2011, Hadlow Castle was transferred to the Vivat Trust. [11] [12]

The restoration was completed in February 2013, making it the tallest folly in the United Kingdom. [13] In October 2013, the restoration of the tower was recognised when the Vivat Trust and the Save Hadlow Tower Action Group (SHTAG) won a Lloyd-Webber Angel Award. [14] Work was completed on the interior; the exhibition centre in the tower was open on Thursdays from May to October. [13] Visits are organised by SHTAG. [15] In September 2014, it was shortlisted for the 2014 Kent Design Awards. [16] Following the collapse of Vivat Trust, the tower was offered for sale in May 2016. [3] In 2017 the tower was sold to a private individual for £425,000. [17] The tower was re-listed for sale in 2020 with Sotheby's International Realty for £1,475,000. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Folly</span> Type of building

In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hadlow</span> Village in Kent, England

Hadlow is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. It is situated in the Medway valley, north-east of Tonbridge and south-west of Maidstone.

The Landmark Trust is a British building conservation charity, founded in 1965 by Sir John and Lady Smith, that rescues buildings of historic interest or architectural merit and then makes them available for holiday rental. The Trust's headquarters is at Shottesbrooke in Berkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tonbridge and Malling (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1974–2024

Tonbridge and Malling was a constituency in western Kent, in South East England, in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It was represented for its entire creation since 1974 by members of the Conservative Party.

On 20 November 1992, a fire broke out in Windsor Castle, the largest inhabited castle in the world and one of the official residences of the British monarch. The castle suffered extensive damage and was fully repaired within the next five years at a cost of £36.5 million, in a project led by the conservation architects Donald Insall Associates. It led to Queen Elizabeth II paying tax on her income, and to Buckingham Palace, one of her other official residences, being opened to the public to help pay for the restoration work. This event was part of what the Queen called her annus horribilis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beckford's Tower</span> Architectural folly near Bath, England

Beckford's Tower, originally known as Lansdown Tower, is an architectural folly built in neo-classical style on Lansdown Hill, just outside Bath, Somerset, England. The tower and its attached railings are designated as a Grade I listed building. Along with the adjoining Lansdown Cemetery it is Grade II listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.

K College, also known as South & West Kent College, was an English college of Further Education and Higher Education with facilities across Kent, formed in April 2010, by the merger of South Kent College with West Kent College. In 2014 it was split again, between Hadlow College and East Kent College, with West Kent College being reestablished and the campus in Ashford becoming Ashford College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dinton Castle</span> Castle located just north of the village of Dinton, in Buckinghamshire

Dinton Castle is located just north of the village of Dinton, in Buckinghamshire and was built as an eyecatcher from the Dinton Hall estate, by Sir John Vanhattern in 1769. He used the castle to exhibit his collection of fossils, ammonites, embedded in the limestone walls. The "sham castle" or folly is a Priority A site with the Heritage at Risk Register and has been a Grade II Listed structure since 1951 when it was in a ruinous state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Court</span> Grade II listed building in Stowey, UK

Sutton Court is an English house remodelled by Thomas Henry Wyatt in the 1850s from a manor house built in the 15th and 16th centuries around a 14th-century fortified pele tower and surrounding buildings. The house has been designated as Grade II* listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tower of Hallbar</span> 16th-century tower house in Scotland

The Tower of Hallbar, also known as Hallbar Tower and Braidwood Castle, is a 16th-century tower house, located to the west of the River Clyde in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. The tower is situated above the Braidwood Burn, 3.5 km (2.2 mi) south-west of Carluke, and 1.5 km (0.93 mi) east of Crossford. It has been restored and is let out as holiday accommodation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cliffe Castle Museum</span> Heritage centre, Historic house museum. in West Yorkshire, England

Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley, West Yorkshire, England, is a local heritage museum which opened in the grand, Victorian, neo-Gothic Cliffe Castle in 1959. Originating as Cliffe Hall in 1828, the museum is the successor to Keighley Museum which opened in Eastwood House, Keighley, in c. 1892. There is a series of galleries dedicated to various aspects of local heritage, and to displaying the house itself, which is a Grade II listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oast Theatre, Tonbridge</span> Theatre in Kent, England

The Oast Theatre is situated on the outskirts of Tonbridge, Kent. It is a small theatre that is based in an old oast house. It is home to the Tonbridge Theatre and Arts Club. The theatre seats 112 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banwell Castle</span> Historic site in Somerset, England

Banwell Castle is a Victorian Gothic Revival mansion in Banwell, Somerset, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Mary's Church, Hadlow</span> Church in Kent, England

St Mary's Church is the parish church in Hadlow, Kent, United Kingdom. The church is a Grade II* listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somerhill House</span> Grade I listed country house in UK

Somerhill House is a Grade I listed Jacobean mansion situated near Tonbridge, Kent, United Kingdom. It was built for The 4th Earl of Clanricarde in 1611–13. The estate was sequestrated by Parliament in 1645, and restored to its rightful owner in 1660. The building had become derelict by the mid-eighteenth century but was later restored. Somerhill was painted by Turner in 1811. It was bought by a member of the Goldsmid family in 1849 and greatly extended between 1879 and 1897, making it the second largest house in Kent, after Knole House, Sevenoaks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strawberry Hill House</span> Historic villa in Twickenham, London built by Horace Walpole

Strawberry Hill House—often called simply Strawberry Hill—is a Gothic Revival villa that was built in Twickenham, London, by Horace Walpole (1717–1797) from 1749 onward. It is a typical example of the "Strawberry Hill Gothic" style of architecture, and it prefigured the nineteenth-century Gothic Revival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trinity Congregational Church, Christchurch</span> Restaurant in Christchurch, New Zealand

TheTrinity Church or Trinity Congregational Church designed by Benjamin Mountfort, later called the State Trinity Centre, is a Category I heritage building listed with Heritage New Zealand. Damaged in the 2010 Canterbury earthquake and red-stickered after the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the building was threatened with demolition like most other central city heritage buildings. In June 2012, it was announced that the building would be saved, repaired and earthquake strengthened. The building, post its church status, has housed some commercial operations, including the State Trinity Centre; 'The Octagon' (2006–2010); and later, following earthquake repairs, a business called 'The Church Brew Pub' (2023–present).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dene Park</span> Country house in Kent, England

Dene Park is a Victorian mansion house and estate in the parish of Hadlow, Kent, United Kingdom. It served as the site of the Thomas Delarue School between 1955 and 1965.

References

  1. ↑ "Hadlow Castle". Lost Heritage. Archived from the original on 22 May 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
  2. 1 2 Hadlow Castle
  3. 1 2 "Real-life Kent 'Rapunzel tower' for sale as luxury home". The Telegraph. Telegraph Group. 22 May 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
  4. ↑ "Hadlow Tower". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
  5. ↑ "The Tower". The Tower. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
  6. ↑ Folly Towers
  7. ↑ Daily Telegraph, 24 July 2006 [ dead link ]
  8. ↑ "Vivat Trust website". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 17 August 2009.
  9. ↑ Moran, Lee (14 January 2011). "Restoration of historic tower gets go-ahead". Kent and Sussex Courier. p. 8.
  10. ↑ "Restoration work on Hadlow Tower in Kent set to start". BBC News Online. 24 February 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
  11. ↑ "Hadlow Tower - Saved for the Nation". The Vivat Trust. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
  12. ↑ Jenna, Pudelek (6 March 2011). "Taking the tower to new heights". KoS Your Tunbridge Wells. pp. 14–15.
  13. 1 2 "Tower restored to its former glory after 12-year fight". Kent and Sussex Courier (Tonbridge edition). No. 15 February 2013. p. 1.[ permanent dead link ]
  14. ↑ "Hadlow Tower receives Lloyd-Webber awards". BBC News. 21 October 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
  15. ↑ "SHTAG" . Retrieved 6 October 2013.
  16. ↑ Britcher, Chris (28 September 2014). "Architects hope grand designs build on community benefits". Kent on Sunday. Kent.
  17. ↑ "A Message from Hadlow Tower Stewards" (PDF). Hadlow Newsletter (550). St. Mary's Church, Hadlow. February 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 January 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  18. ↑ "4 bedrooms House for sale – High Street, Hadlow, Tonbridge, Kent, TN11". www.sothebysrealty.co.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2020.[ permanent dead link ]

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.