Taking the standpoint that ‘most follies are simply misunderstood buildings’, Headley and Meulenkamp explore the aims of their builders. Asking whether they were seeking admiration, approval, respect or awe, or if they were simply unable to resist their creative urge, they present a gazetteer of examples such as Heaven’s Gate on Siddown Hill, built to frame the view of Highclere Castle, and home built 60 feet in the air to disguise a water tank in Suffolk.
If this were a novel, the tales of astounding wealth, sexual perversion, murder, munificence, rape, insanity, brutality, slavery, religious mania, selfishness, snobbery, charity, suicide, generosity, theft, madness, wickedness, failure and eccentricity which unfold in these pages would be too concentrated to allow for the willing suspension of disbelief.
All these sins and virtues, and more, are displayed by the characters in this book, some exhibiting several of them simultaneously.
Folly builders were not as we are. They never built what we now call follies. They built for beauty, utility, improvement; it is only we, struggling after them with our imperfect understanding, who dismiss their prodigious constructions as follies.
Follies can be found around the world, but England is their spiritual home. Having written the definitive books on follies in Great Britain, Benelux and the USA, Headley & Meulenkamp have turned their attention to the folly builders themselves, people so blinded by fashion or driven by some nameless ideology that they expended great fortunes on making their point in brick, stone and flint.
Most follies are simply misunderstood buildings, and this book studies the motives, characters, decisions and delusions of their builders.
If there was madness in their building, fortunately there was no method in it.
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https://www.psbooks.co.uk/the-english-folly545208The English Follyhttps://www.psbooks.co.uk/media/catalog/product/5/4/545208_media-0.jpg14.9914.99GBPInStock/Non-Fiction/Categories/Architecture/Non-Fiction/Categories/British IslesTaking the standpoint that ‘most follies are simply misunderstood buildings’, Headley and Meulenkamp explore the aims of their builders. Asking whether they were seeking admiration, approval, respect or awe, or if they were simply unable to resist their creative urge, they present a gazetteer of examples such as Heaven’s Gate on Siddown Hill, built to frame the view of Highclere Castle, and home built 60 feet in the air to disguise a water tank in Suffolk.Paperback00https://www.psbooks.co.uk/media/catalog/product/5/4/545208_media-1.jpghttps://www.psbooks.co.uk/media/catalog/product/5/4/545208_media-2.jpgadd-to-cartrrp_info:£35.00productId:181012bic_code:AMC, AMVAMC, AMV£35.00Gwyn Headley, Wim MeulenkampGeneral238x169mmHistoric EnglandNoPaperback
