Broadway Tower: A Folly of Delight and Daring
If These Walls Could Talk
•
23m
High on the peak of the Cotswolds stands one of the most remarkable buildings in Britain. Built as a folly in the final days of the 18th century, Broadway Tower sprung up during the height of the French Revolutionary Wars under the distracted watch of the architect James Wyatt. In the following years Wyatt’s “Saxon Castle” became a lighthouse of learning (housing the printing press of the notorious Sir Thomas Phillipps) and later in the 19th century it became an eccentric summer retreat for William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites. In the 20th century, the tower became a Royal Observer Corps lookout post and site of a tragic air crash which was recognised by Churchill himself. Despite this eclectic history, Broadway Tower remains (as a young printer once described it) “the most delightful situation imagination can conceive”. History Hit's Alice Loxton pays a visit to this folly.
Up Next in If These Walls Could Talk
-
Versailles: Palace of Science
Versailles, the magnificent royal palace near Paris, home to a grandiose monarchy that was swept away in the Revolution. But there was another side to Versailles - this was also a Palace of Science.
In this special film, Dr. Maddy Pelling visits the Science Museum in London to explore a remarkab...
-
How did the English Civil War affect ...
Historian Michael Sewell reflects on how the British Civil War impacted and destroyed landmarks that were cherished and used by communities. Using Colchester as his Case Study he will show the conflict shaped our town’s landscape forever and show the lasting legacy of the conflict in English hist...
-
Henry's Forts: Castles on the Coast
On the 26 February 2021, around 38 metres of wall collapsed at Hurst Castle, one of a series of vital coastal forts built by Henry VIII in the 16th century to protect England from threat of invasion by the European powers. Recently, Dan went out on his kayak to assess the damage at the castle whi...
