HADLOW CASTLE

Kent

If you ever needed to explain to someone the concept of a folly, then you could do no better than to point them to Hadlow Castle.  Stand them at one end of the village, point at the peculiar 170 foot high tower and enquire of them "What's the point of that then?"

This most odd construction (which used to sit on a big building and now merely sits on a small one) was constructed by William Barton May during the 1830s.  The Tower was designed by May himself and was built with a slightly odd purpose in mind.  He had recently, acrimoniously, split with his lover and he wanted to build this Tower so that "wherever in Kent she went she would see it and be reminded of him".  He didn't do a bad job by all accounts!

The last 10 years or so have been a disastrous time for Hadlow.  With continuous criminal neglect the Tower had become so unstable that in 1996 the top section was removed by English Heritage to stop it falling off and being destroyed forever.  Now English Heritage are in charge and are trying to get the building back into some kind of shape.

Hadlow Castle is on the list of most "at risk" historic buildings, and we can only hope that EH have caught the decay in the time to save this most peculiar of Kent's buildings.

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© Text copyright - Raving Loony Productions, Andrew J. Müller and Roy Barton
© Photos and Artwork - Andrew J. Müller and Roy Barton
© Web Design and Layout - Andrew J. Müller
2001