Barwick Park Follies
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The Barwick Park follies stand within Barwick Park in Barwick in Somerset.
There are four follies in the park. Local folk say they were built to give the estate labourers work during a time of depression in the 1820s. They were possibly commissioned by George Messiter of Barwick to mark the park boundaries at the four cardinal points:
- Jack the Treacle Eater (a stone arch topped by a round tower) to the east,[1]
- The Fish Tower in the north,[2]
- Messiter's Cone (also known as the Rose Tower), which is 75 feet high,[3] at the west[4] end; and
- The Needle to the south.[5]
However, paintings of Barwick House in the 1780s, forty years earlier, include two of the follies.
The follies collectively rank on Countryfile's 2009 countdown of "Britain's top 10 follies".[6]
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1057227: Jack the Treacle Eater
- ↑ National Heritage List 1308005: The Fish Tower
- ↑ Leete-Hodge, Lornie (1985). Curiosities of Somerset. Bodmin: Bossiney Books. p. 91. ISBN 0-906456-98-3.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1057221: The Rose Tower
- ↑ National Heritage List 1057219: Needle Obelisk
- ↑ 'Britain's top 10 follies': Countryfile