Volta Tower
The Volta Tower was a folly in the town of Finedon, Northamptonshire, England.
The tower was built in 1865 by William Mackworth-Dolben of Finedon Hall. William Harcourt Isham Mackworth (1806—1872), a younger son of Sir Digby Mackworth, the 3rd Baronet, took the additional surname Dolben after he married Frances, the heiress of Sir John English Dolben, the 4th Baronet.
History
Mackworth-Dolben built the tower to commemorate the death of his eldest son, William Digby, who drowned at sea on 1 September 1863. Digby, a naval officer serving on the Volta drowned in the mouth of the River Niger. His younger brother, the poet Digby Mackworth Dolben drowned in 1867.
The tower was circular and about 100 feet high. A gabled extension of one of the two floors had been added in keeping. The tower stood far back with a long driveway in front, along Station Road in Finedon. Not much changed in the surroundings of the Volta Tower apart from Finedon's new cemetery was built alongside the Volta Tower in 1892.
The Collapse of the Volta Tower
The Volta Tower collapsed on 16 November 1951 after standing for 86 years. At the time, Mrs Florence Northen and her husband lived there. Mr Northen was outside at the time of its collapse and survived but Mrs Northen was inside and killed by the tower's collapse. It was discovered after its collapse that no mortar had been used at all in its construction which caused its untimely collapse. Older residents of the town who remember the day of the Volta Tower's collapse describe hearing a loud rumble as it collapsed and describe seeing a huge dust cloud in the air over where the Volta Tower had been standing.
Current times
Today, the driveway up to where the Volta Tower stood still exists and a farm has been built on top of the Volta Tower's location as well as a bungalow. Nothing of the tower exists today apart from one carved stone figure of a cherub from close to the top of the tower which was auctioned and sold to one of Finedon's residents in 2005.[1]
It is only the older generation or those who have been told about the Volta Tower who know of its past existence but many of Finedon's residents will have never heard of it. It was one of Finedon's landmarks and does still appear on Finedon's town sign alongside the church and the windmill, which are both close to where the Volta Tower stood.
External links
"The Volta Tower official website"
References
Sources
- John Bailey, Finedon Revealed, 1987, ISBN 0-9504250-1-X
- John Bailey, Look at Finedon, 2005, ISBN 0-9504250-2-8