Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Secrets, Stories and Scandals of Ten Welsh Follies.
    Secrets, Stories and Scandals of Ten Welsh Follies.
    Secrets, Stories and Scandals of Ten Welsh Follies.
    Ebook79 pages42 minutes

    Secrets, Stories and Scandals of Ten Welsh Follies.

    By Graham Watkins

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Secrets, Stories and Scandals of Ten Welsh Follies contains the stories behind ten weird and wonderful Welsh buildings. If you enjoy unusual tales, quirky human history and delight in the ridiculous and the vain you will enjoy this book. Discover why...

    *The undefeated American Boxing Champion Rocky Marciano lived in a Welsh Folly in Swansea.
    *6ft 3 inch Mr. Jones slept in a strange house in Conwy with his feet hanging out of the window.
    *A pipe smoking shipping magnate upset his wife and built a folly complete with battlements.
    *What possessed William Jones to build the strange folly that is Clytha Castle.
    *Why Lord Mostyn built a track through a house with a road underneath. His strange folly is still inhabited today.

    These are just a few of the entertaining Welsh Follies in this book. But there's more, discover why...

    *A deserted lighthouse on a golden sandy beach has a strange moaning statue at its top.
    *A future king turned his nose up when offered a stately folly castle.
    *There is a bizarre folly clocktower that looks like a lighthouse standing in the middle a boating lake in Cardiff.
    *A magnificent folly tower on Anglesey records the exploits of a one legged man.
    *Bodysgallen Obelisk has upset the neighbours.

    Discover who erected these strange buildings and why, what secrets lay hidden in their pasts and how they have been treated over the years. Folly hunters have researched odd and strange buildings but never before have the secrets of Welsh Follies been told so entertainingly.
    Every folly has a tale to tell about the special people who built them as if the follies themselves are a window into another age or world, one which is fun and well worth exploring.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGraham Watkins
    Release dateJul 29, 2015
    ISBN9781311222398
    Secrets, Stories and Scandals of Ten Welsh Follies.
    Author

    Graham Watkins

    Hi. I’m Graham Watkins and I have several years researching Welsh legends and myths. It has been a wonderful project and great fun as I explored rugged mountains, mysterious castles, enchanting waterfalls and golden beaches to discover the tales that have been handed down from generation to generation. Wales is a land of mystery and being a Celtic race the Welsh are fantastic story tellers.That’s how I started writing. Today, I am a novelist, hobby farmer and explorer. It’s all been great fun and the story isn’t over yet. Checkout my website, www.grahamwatkins.info, for the latest news and details of free books which I love to give away. Right now I'm giving away 'The Iron Masters - Volume 1 For the Love of Eira' and 'Legends and Myth from North Wales' containing a collection of sixteen legends and myths from Wales. I know you'll enjoy them and come back for more.

    Read more from Graham Watkins

    Related to Secrets, Stories and Scandals of Ten Welsh Follies.

    Related ebooks

    History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Elizabeth I's Love Nest

      Jul 26, 2023

      Snodhill Castle is England’s newest Norman ruin. More than 900 years old, it is only just starting to surrender some of its misty secrets, including a rediscovered royal chapel. Most castles were well documented, having for centuries required militar

      3 min read

    • Article

      Take a GRAND TOUR

      Sep 15, 2022

      Take a GRAND TOUR
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Middle Kingdom

      Jul 28, 2021

      The Middle Kingdom
      5 min read

    • Article

      Verdant Valley

      Oct 8, 2021

      Verdant Valley
      5 min read

    • Article

      Historic Villages Warkworth

      Sep 9, 2022

      Historic Villages Warkworth
      3 min read

    • Article

      Tour With The Tudors

      Dec 8, 2022

      Carol Kubicki… and her husband, Anthony, use their Devon Tempest to pursue their hobbies of walking and cycling while exploring the historical and natural environments 2015 Devon Tempest on a Renault Master MWB 2.3-litre. This is our third blue campe

      7 min read

    • Article

      I Don’t Think I’m Getting Out Of Here…

      Jan 4, 2021

      Last month, I explained how my links with Gwrych Castle in Abergele (home of the relocated I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!) started with a photo of Coronation Street actors I took there in 1963. In 2002, I bought a bungalow near Gwrych. The cast

      4 min read

    • Article

      Top 10 coastal Castles

      Jun 29, 2023

      Top 10 coastal Castles
      9 min read

    • Article

      Berkeley Castle

      Apr 7, 2022

      Berkeley Castle
      5 min read

    • Article

      Peculiar Postcards

      Sep 10, 2020

      Peculiar Postcards
      4 min read

    • Article

      Get Away For… THE WEEKEND!

      Oct 12, 2023

      Get Away For… THE WEEKEND!
      6 min read

    • Article

      TheVyne

      Dec 8, 2022

      TheVyne
      4 min read

    • Article

      No Going Back

      Mar 2, 2022

      No Going Back
      4 min read

    • Article

      Garden Of England

      Sep 7, 2018

      Garden Of England
      6 min read

    • Article

      Waking A Sleeping GIANT

      Sep 21, 2023

      Waking A Sleeping GIANT
      11 min read

    • Article

      Delightful DAYS OUT

      May 3, 2024

      Delightful DAYS OUT
      4 min read

    • Article

      Great British Castles

      Apr 13, 2023

      Great British Castles
      10 min read

    • Article

      A Cumbrian Work Of Art

      Apr 11, 2024

      A Cumbrian Work Of Art
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Castle Fit For A Pig

      Jun 29, 2022

      A Castle Fit For A Pig
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Drive Into History

      Apr 20, 2023

      A Drive Into History
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Cotswolds

      Jun 1, 2019

      The Cotswolds
      5 min read

    • Article

      Whispering Windrush

      Aug 2, 2019

      Whispering Windrush
      4 min read

    • Article

      COUNTY of KINGS

      Feb 9, 2024

      COUNTY of KINGS
      5 min read

    • Article

      Beautiful Britain

      May 6, 2020

      Beautiful Britain
      1 min read

    • Article

      Top 10 romantic Ruins

      Feb 22, 2024

      Top 10 romantic Ruins
      8 min read

    • Article

      Tied Up In Notts

      Sep 7, 2023

      Tied Up In Notts
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Secrets, Stories and Scandals of Ten Welsh Follies.

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Secrets, Stories and Scandals of Ten Welsh Follies. - Graham Watkins

      The Secrets, Stories and Scandals of Ten Welsh Follies.

      The Stories of

      10 Strange Buildings in Wales

      Graham Watkins

      Copyright 2013 Graham Watkins

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Clytha Castle

      Marquis of Anglesey Column

      Roath Park Clock Tower

      Jersey Marine Tower

      The Smallest House

      Bodysgallen Folly Obelisk

      Tan y Coed Folly

      Castell Gwrych

      Talacre Lighthouse

      Dry Bridge Lodge

      New Novel Offer

      Free Book Offer 1

      Free Book Offer 2

      Introduction.

      ‘Folly’ n. a want of sense; weakness of mind; irrationality; a foolish action; a useless and needlessly extravagant structure.

      Welsh follies come in all shapes and sizes, from the ‘Smallest House in Britain’ on the quay at Conwy, once the home of 6’ 3’’ fisherman, Robert Jones, to Portmeirion Village where, between 1925 and 1975, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis constructed follies on an epic almost industrial scale. In building Portmeirion, Williams-Ellis produced one of the most extravagant and beautiful follies in the world. In the 1960s his Italianate creation was used as the location for the cult television programme ‘The Prisoner’. Today, Portmeirion is a popular tourist attraction visited by thousands of holiday-makers every year.

      Like the Irish famine follies of the 1840s, some Welsh follies were built to provide a means of sustenance for hungry men. Twr y Deri, (Derry Ormond Tower), built near Lampeter in 1837 on the orders of a local squire, is one example. The squire wanted to provide employment for the men of Betws Bledrws. Other follies were built as ornaments by wealthy landowners, monuments to their vanity or as exclamation marks placed on the land to record often forgotten historical events. Some Welsh follies are eccentric, many are curious, pretending to be something that they aren’t while others have a more serious purpose, but all have a story to tell.

      This book explores the stories behind ten curious and often, apparently, pointless buildings in Wales. Discover who built them, why they were built and what the people involved in creating the architectural oddities we call follies, were trying to achieve. ‘By God Sir, I’ve lost my leg!’ cried Henry Paget when his leg was shot away at the Battle of Waterloo. His heroism and capacity for fun, despite being an invalid after the war, made him famous while his severed leg became a tourist attraction visited by royalty. Paget’s exploits are commemorated on Anglesey by one of the tallest follies in Wales. Further south, in Roath Park, Cardiff there is a peculiar clock tower, surrounded by a boating lake, with a strange connection to the South Pole.

      When Winifred Bamford-Hesketh discovered her husband was a philanderer, she changed her will and left Castell Gwrych, an enormous folly built by her grandfather, to the Prince of Wales. After she died, her angry husband took his revenge with a calculated act of vandalism. Why did Rocky Marciano, an American who became heavyweight boxing champion of the world, live in Jersey Marine Tower, a Welsh folly in Swansea?

      These are just a few examples of the stories revealing, as they do, the history of our bizarre buildings while bringing to life interesting characters and events from our past. While I cannot guarantee the certainty of every tale, many have become folklore and legend and I’m confident that all are based on real events.

      Chapter 1

      Clytha Castle

      The practice of erecting a memorial to a loved one is common enough but when William Jones’ wife Elizabeth died

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1