The Folly Tower
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The Folly Tower is a folly at Pontypool, Torfaen, South Wales (Grid ref: SO 29525 02495). It is a prominent local landmark above the A4042 Pontypool to Abergavenny road.
Built around 1765 to 1770 by John Hanbury, a local landowner and local ironmaster who owned Pontypool Park, as a family summer house, the original tower had neither roof nor floor. It was rebuilt and restored around 1831 by Capel Hanbury Leigh. It provided a very fine viewpoint and quickly became widely popular and a well known feature of the county.
In 1935 nearly 20,000 people gathered at the Folly Tower to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of King George V with a bonfire.
The tower was beginning to fall in a state of disrepair during the late 1930s though.
On the 9th July 1940, the Ministry of Defence ordered that, as a security measure under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939, the Folly be demolished. This was in the mistaken belief that its presence would be a landmark for the Lufwaffe seeking to raid the nearby Royal Ordnance Factory at ROF Glascoed to the east beyond Little Mill.
After the war in 1946 and again in 1948 campaigns started to collect funds and donations to rebuild the Folly Tower, but were unsuccessful, due mainly it is thought on a priority with house building in the local area. During 1990, a number of local historians and conservationists decided it was time to restore the Folly Tower to its former glory and a committee was set up to canvas various funding bodies as well as open negotiations with the National Park Authority. The creation of the Campaign for the Reconstruction of the Folly Tower (CROFT) then achieved sufficient backing that the required £60,000 was raised to rebuild the Folly Tower.
It was officially reopened by HRH the Prince of Wales on the 22nd July 1994. From the top it is said that, on clear days, six counties can be seen: Monmouthshire, Glamorgan, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Somerset. Even on unclear days, the recovery to verdant wood and grass-land from former local industrial despoilation is striking.
[edit] External links
- This map printed in 1886 shows it as The Folly or Tŵr Watch
- Entry for The Folly at geocaching.com
- Photo of the tower
