Essex's quirkiest buildings and where to find them
My dictionary defines the word folly as ‘foolish, lack of good sense, ridiculous thing.’ or a ‘costly structure that is (considered) useless.’ We Brits pride ourselves on our eccentricity though! These 10 structures have hardly, if any, purpose – but therein lies their charm.
A House for Essex, Wrabness
Located at the end of a private lane, among undulating countryside overlooking the River Stour, this wonderfully quirky building, also known as Julie’s House, was designed by Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry. It was Perry’s long-held dream to build a chapel to his home county, and the finished product evokes the tradition of wayside and pilgrimage chapels. Although deeply modern (it was completed in 2015), it belongs to a history of follies and is brimming with elaborate artworks all dedicated to Grayson’s fictitious character, Julie Cope.
Built in 1883 by John Bateman, the jury’s out as to whether this was conceived as a folly where his daughter could recover from consumption by breathing in fresh sea air, as her changing room in the era prior to beach huts or even if it was intended to serve as a lighthouse, which seems logical given its position at the end of Promenade Way. Philanthropist, Justice of the Peace and editor, Bateman was an interesting character who may just have had his daughter’s best interests at heart, but in the process gave Brightlingsea its own leaning tower due to the weak foundations on which it was constructed.
Built most likely as a fishing lodge during the reign of Elizabeth I (1591), Bourne Mill ostensibly had a purpose, so it’s the unnecessary degree of fussy embellishment that makes it resemble a folly. At each end of the single-storey stone structure are gables that rise in concave and convex curves and are more befitting of a local worthy’s country pile. The building has been used as a water mill (hence Bourne Mill), which is when the white weather-boarded hoist-lift was added. It’s one of Colchester’s more unusual sights in the south-east corner of the city.
There are a number of follies in the grounds of Audley End. Why limit yourself to one when you can afford several? There’s the Teahouse Bridge and the Temple of Victory, but my favourite is the Temple of Concord, erected in celebration of King George III’s recovery from insanity (which turned out to be a bit premature). It’s pointless otherwise but it’s an impressive eyecatcher, and if you walk up to it, you’ll be rewarded with great vistas. The grounds of Audley End were landscaped by Capability Brown but the Temple of Concord (1790) was added by John Deval Jnr. as a romantic folly.
Built in 1859, this early-Victorian folly was commissioned by the Rev. Bull so is also dubbed Bull’s Folly. It’s a 95-foot-high hexagonal tower monument, erected in memory of his parents ‘on a spot they loved so well’ in the garden of the rectory at Pentlow – aww! It’s approximately 90 metres south-west of the house and has a stone plaque over its doorway recording the bare facts: ‘Erected by Rev. John Bull 1859 in honour of his parents etc’ (some sources say he was an Edward). There’s a spiral staircase that’s worth the ascent; it’s said that 48 churches can be seen from the tower on a clear day.
At Rayleigh is the octagonal, timber-framed Dutch Cottage, a chocolate-box style Grade II listed thatched cottage reputedly of 1621 (whilst a plaque at the site surmises it might be mid-18th century, although it does concede that its origins are ‘obscure’). It’s built around a central brick chimney and is ripe for the emergence of Little Red Riding Hood. The plaque states, without fear of contradiction, that this represents one of this country’s ‘most unusual council properties’. The ‘Dutch’ in its name connects it with the immigrants from that country, brought in as flood defence experts.
The Grade II listed mid-Georgian mansion of Copped Hall hasn’t had the best of luck; it was destroyed by fire during WW1, but it’s now being restored. In the grounds is a folly, a garden summer house that benefits from the usual over-fussy embellishment where follies are concerned. Charles Eamer Kempe, who usually worked in stained glass, was recruited in 1887 to jazz up the garden with a great conservatory, temples, flights of steps, parterre, gates, fountains, statuary – the usual kind of stuff! The summer house was a notable feature of this Italianate garden that Kempe somehow conjured up.
Created in Harlow by Sir Frederick and Patricia Gibberd, the Gibberd Garden is of particular interest as being the work of the landscape architect (Sir Frederick) who also happened to be Harlow New Town’s architect/planner. The Gibberd Garden comprises nine landscaped acres, including a two-storey gazebo replete with columns and an external stone staircase. The garden, designed and created by the Gibberds on the outskirts of Harlow between the late-1950s and the architect’s death in 1984, even contains a moated castle.
These are the noble twin towers of a Robert Adam-designed church but minus the nave, which has gone AWOL leaving the towers independent of one another. We’re lucky to have these remains as Adam only bestowed one other church on us and that’s in Norfolk. Robert Rigby of Mistley Hall had the grand idea of turning Mistley into a spa town and Adam had the vision and skills to deliver a fitting church. He made use of an earlier church, adding the classic square towers, topped with drums and domes and supported with free-standing columns. Sadly, the nave of Adam’s creation was pulled down in 1870.
Colchester’s High Street has a folly secret lurking behind a surrounding wall – an octagonal, castellated summer house or gothic-revival folly of the Georgian era, which was designed as ‘an ombrello (rain protector) to terminate a prospect’. It was originally erected at East Hill House (c.1745) but was brought to The Minories 30-odd years later by the Dickensian-sounding Thomas Boggis. He inherited what had been a Tudor residence and began transforming it into a Georgian mansion, which is now the town’s art gallery and is Grade II listed to boot.
