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.
Badminton House is a large country house and Grade I Listed Building in Badminton, Gloucestershire, England, which has been the principal seat of the Dukes of Beaufort since the late 17th century. The house, which has given its name to the sport of badminton, is set among 52,000 acres of land. The gardens and park surrounding the house are listed at Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
Prior Park Landscape Garden surrounding the Prior Park estate south of Bath, Somerset, England, was designed in the 18th century by the poet Alexander Pope and the landscape gardener Capability Brown, and is now owned by the National Trust. The garden was influential in defining the style known as the "English landscape garden" in continental Europe. The garden is Grade I listed in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.
Prior Park is a Neo-Palladian house that was designed by John Wood, the Elder, and built in the 1730s and 1740s for Ralph Allen on a hill overlooking Bath, Somerset, England. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.
Blaise Castle is a folly built in 1766 near Henbury in Bristol, England. The castle sits within the Blaise Castle Estate, which also includes Blaise Castle House, a Grade II* listed 18th-century mansion house. The folly castle is also Grade II* listed and ancillary buildings including the orangery and dairy also have listings. Along with Blaise Hamlet, a group of nine small cottages around a green built in 1811 for retired employees, and various subsidiary buildings, the parkland is listed Grade II* on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England.
Bathampton is a village and civil parish 2 miles (3 km) east of Bath, England on the south bank of the River Avon. The parish has a population of 1,603.
Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of Bath, England its distinctive appearance. An important feature of Bath Stone is that it is a 'freestone', so-called because it can be sawn or 'squared up' in any direction, unlike other rocks such as slate, which form distinct layers.
Chaffcombe is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated 2 miles (3.2 km) north east of Chard in the South Somerset district. The village has a population of 229.
East Harptree is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is situated 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Wells and 15 miles (24.1 km) south of Bristol, on the northern slope of the Mendip Hills overlooking the Chew Valley. The parish has a population of 644. The parish includes the hamlet of Coley.
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.
Chewton Keynsham is a hamlet on the River Chew in the Chew Valley, Somerset, England. It is 7 miles from Bristol, 7 miles from Bath, and 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the centre of the town of Keynsham.
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.
Bathampton Down is a flat limestone plateau in Bathampton, Somerset, England, overlooking the River Avon and the city of Bath. There is evidence of man's activity at the site since the Mesolithic period including Bathampton Camp, an Iron Age hillfort or stock enclosure. It has also been used for quarrying, and part of it is now a golf course.
Cholmondeley Castle is a country house in the civil parish of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, England. Together with its adjacent formal gardens, it is surrounded by parkland. The site of the house has been a seat of the Cholmondeley family since the 12th century. The present house replaced a timber-framed hall nearby. It was built at the start of the 19th century for George Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley, who designed most of it himself in the form of a crenellated castle. After the death of the Marquess, the house was extended to designs by Robert Smirke to produce the building in its present form. The house is designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building.
Clytha Castle is a folly near Clytha between Llanarth and Raglan in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. Dating from 1790, the castle was built by William Jones, owner of the Clytha Park estate as a memorial to his wife, Elizabeth, who died in 1787. The castle is an example of the Gothic Revival and comprises three towers, of which two are habitable, and linking, castellated curtain walls. Long attributed to John Nash, recent research has confirmed that the architect was John Davenport of Shrewsbury. The folly has views towards the Sugar Loaf and Skirrid mountains on the easternmost edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Described by the architectural historian John Newman as one of the two "outstanding examples of late eighteenth century fanciful Gothic in the county", Clytha Castle is a Grade I listed building.
Midford Castle is a folly castle in the village of Midford, and the parish of Southstoke 3 miles (5 km) south of Bath, Somerset, England.
The Grade I listed buildings in Somerset, England, demonstrate the history and diversity of its architecture. The ceremonial county of Somerset consists of a non-metropolitan county, administered by Somerset County Council, which is divided into five districts, and two unitary authorities. The districts of Somerset are West Somerset, South Somerset, Taunton Deane, Mendip and Sedgemoor. The two administratively independent unitary authorities, which were established on 1 April 1996 following the breakup of the county of Avon, are North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset. These unitary authorities include areas that were once part of Somerset before the creation of Avon in 1974.
The Conygar Tower in Dunster, Somerset, England was built in 1775 and has been designated as a Grade II listed building.
Bathwick Hill in Bath, Somerset, England is a street lined with historic houses, many of which are designated as listed buildings. It climbs south east from the A36 towards the University of Bath on Claverton Down, providing views over the city.
Kelston Park is an 18th-century country house in the village of Kelston, approximately 3 miles from Bath in North East Somerset, England. Altogether the house and gardens of Kelston Park cover an area of approximately 75 hectares. The house has been designated as a Grade II* listed building, and the garden is Grade II* listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
