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The Great Britain Guide

Follies · West Midlands

Broadway Tower

GeorgianFree admission

Broadway Tower — Folly or eyecatcher, 1798–1799.

Broadway Tower, follies in Gloucestershire

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Plan your visit

Typical visit
20 min–45 min
Nearest railway station
Broadway · 3.2 km
  • Free entry
  • Family-friendly
  • Dog-friendly

About

Broadway Tower is a folly — a piece of decorative architecture built more for the view than any practical purpose — in the United Kingdom. Records date its origin to 1797. Wikidata describes it as: "Folly or eyecatcher, 1798–1799.". Coordinates: 52.0242°, -1.8358°.

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Protected designations

  • Site of Special Scientific Interest: Broadway Hill SSSI
  • Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty: Cotswolds

Designations sourced from Natural England open data under OGL v3.

From the Wikipedia article

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. The tower is on the Cotswold Way and can be reached by following this footpath from the A44 road at Fish Hill or by a steep climb out of Broadway village. It is now the centre of Broadway Tower Country Park, which has exhibitions open to the public for a fee, as well as a gift shop and restaurant.

Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.

Background

History

The Saxon-style tower was the brainchild of landscaper Capability Brown, designed by architect James Wyatt in 1794 in the form of a castle, and built by the 6th Earl of Coventry for his wife Barbara in 1798–1799. Broadway Hill was a beacon hill, where beacons were lit on special occasions. The tower was just visible from the Coventrys' home at Croome Court in south Worcestershire, From 1822 to 1862, the tower housed the private printing press of Sir Thomas Phillipps. By the mid-1870s, it was being rented by C. J. Stone and Cormell Price. On 20 June 1837 the vantage point was used as a bonfire site for Queen Victoria's Jubilee. This was one of 2,548 celebratory bonfires lit across the…

Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Coordinates
52.0242, -1.8358
County
Gloucestershire
District
Cotswold
Parish
Chipping Campden
Postcode
WR12 7LB
Parliamentary constituency
North Cotswolds
Established
1797
Nearest railway station
Broadway3.2 km
Official site
broadwaytower.co.uk

Sources

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Frequently asked questions

Where is Broadway Tower?
Broadway Tower is in Gloucestershire, the West Midlands, United Kingdom (postcode WR12 7LB), in the parish of Chipping Campden.
When was Broadway Tower built?
Built or established in 1797.
Is Broadway Tower a protected site?
Yes — Broadway Tower is part of the Broadway Hill SSSI Site of Special Scientific Interest and the Cotswolds National Landscape (AONB).
Is Broadway Tower free to visit?
Yes, Broadway Tower is free to enter.
How do I get to Broadway Tower?
The nearest railway station is Broadway, about 3.2 km away. Drivers can navigate to postcode WR12 7LB.