Broadway Tower, Worcestershire in the context of Broadway, Worcestershire

⭐ Core Definition: Broadway Tower, Worcestershire

Broadway Tower is an 18th-century building near the village of Broadway, in the English county of Worcestershire. It is a Grade II listed building.

The tower is built of limestone ashlar and is four storeys high, hexagonal, with three round corner turrets, battlements and gargoyles. It stands above the village of Broadway on Broadway Hill, the second-highest point of the Cotswolds, at an elevation of 1,024 feet (312 m). The tower itself is 65 feet (20 m) tall. Although sometimes referred to as a folly, it is a functional building with interior rooms, the top three floors being used as a museum. The rooftop viewing platform can be accessed for good views. Two of the turrets each contain a spiral staircase leading from the ground to the roof.

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Broadway Tower, Worcestershire in the context of Folly

In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings.

Eighteenth-century English landscape gardening and French landscape gardening often featured mock Roman temples, symbolising classical virtues. Other 18th-century garden follies imitated Chinese temples, Egyptian pyramids, ruined medieval castles, abbeys, or Tatar tents, to represent different continents or historical eras. Sometimes they represented rustic villages, mills and cottages, to symbolise rural virtues. Many follies, particularly during times of famine, such as the Great Famine in Ireland, were built as a form of poor relief, to provide employment for peasants and unemployed artisans.

View the full Wikipedia page for Folly

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