Beckford's Tower

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Beckford's Tower with part of the surrounding cemetery

Beckford's Tower , originally Lansdown Tower is a Folly on Lansdown Hill , just outside of Bath in the English county of Somerset . The classical building is listed by English Heritage as a historical building of the first degree. Together with the adjoining Lansdown Cemetery , it is listed in the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens as a Grade II historical facility.

William Beckford , a wealthy novelist , art collector and critic, had the tower built according to plans by Henry Goodrich ; It was completed in 1827. Beckford used it as a library and retreat; the lantern on top served as a belvedere and offered views over the surroundings. The Italianate- style building at the base of the tower housed salons and a library. Extensive land between the tower and Beckford's house on Landsdown Crescent has been landscaped to form Beckford's Ride .

After Beckford's death in 1844, the tower and land were transferred to Walcot parish and a burial site was created; the Scarlet Salon has been converted into a chapel. In 1931 the house and tower were damaged by fire and public funds were collected to restore them. The cemetery closed in 1992 and the following year the Bath Preservation Trust bought the property and underwent extensive renovations. It is now a museum with furniture that was originally made for the tower and paintings, prints and other objects from Beckford's life as an author, collector and art patron.

history

William Beckford

Beckford's Tower in Lansdown above the city of Bath was commissioned by William Beckford, a wealthy Bath citizen, to be completed in 1827 by the local architect Henry Goodridge . Beckford was an English novelist, art collector, patron of decorative arts, art critic, travel writer and for a time also a politician; for a time he was considered the richest commoner in England. In 1822 he sold Fonthill Abbey and much of his art collection to John Farquhar for £ 330,000 and moved to Bath, where he owned Lansdown Crescent No. 20 and Lansdown Place West No. 1 and had the two houses connected with a one-story high arch over the driveway. In 1836 he also bought Lansdown Crescent No. 18 and Lansdown Crescent No. 19 .

Beckford's Tower was at the end of his pleasure garden, Beckford's Ride , which stretched north from his house on Lansdown Crescent to the tower. Beckford used it as a library and retreat. He also made a habit of riding up to the tower to see the progress in the landscaping and then going back to Lansdown Crescent to have breakfast. From the top of the tower Beckford could see the traffic in the Bristol Channel with powerful binoculars . Beckford regretted not having the tower built 12 meters higher and admitted, "As it is, it is a well-known landmark for drunk farmers on their way home from market."

Beckford's finest artifacts of his own choosing, books and prints, as well as the rich furnishings of Fonthill Abbey, which he had sold in 1822, have been reassembled in his two adjoining houses on Lansdown Crescent and in his tower. A long, narrow room in the tower was designed as an "oratory"; the paintings all showed venerable people and a marble statue of “Mary with the Child” stood there, overshadowed by light from a hidden skylight. In 1841 part of the contents of the tower was sold within two days and the rooms were refurnished.

A colored lithograph of the Crimson Parlor in Beckford's Tower, by Willis Maddox , first published in English's Views of Lansdown Tower (1844).

After Beckford's death on May 2, 1844, his younger daughter, Susan Euphenia Beckford , wife of Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton , spent the books and most prized treasures in Hamilton Palace, and the tower was put up for sale but reached auction not its reservation price . In 1847 it was sold for £ 1000 to the owner of a local pub who converted it into a beer garden. Beckford's daughter later bought it back and gave the surrounding land to Walcot parish for consecration as a cemetery in 1848 . This enabled Beckford's body to be returned from his grave in Bath Abbey Cemetery to a grave as he had wished near the tower. His self-designed burial place - a massive sarcophagus made of polished pink granite with bronze coats of arms - stands on a hill in the cemetery, which is surrounded by an oval moat and a ha-ha . On one side there is a quote from his Gothic novella Vathek : “Modestly enjoy the most precious gift from heaven to mankind - hope”, as well as another line from his poem A Prayer : “Eternal power! Grant me a temporary glimmer of your shining being through the visible clouds in the hour of my death ”. The Scarlet Salon was converted into a chapel for the cemetery in 1848 . In 1864 the Rector of Walcot gave £ 100 to repair the masonry on the tower and a similar amount in 1884 to further repair the top of the tower, but in 1898 the masonry began to deteriorate and in 1918 was described as "pitiful and ruinous".

In 1931, an inexplicable fire destroyed much of the interior of the house, which had been converted into a cemetery chapel. The local fire department managed to put the fire out when it reached the wooden steps leading to the top of the tower. Prebendary FE Murphy , the principal of Walcot , called for £ 300 donations for the restoration of the building. In 1954 the stairs to the top of the tower had become unsafe and another public appeal for donations was started. In 1970 the Church Commissioners declared the chapel obsolete and the new owners, Dr. Hilliard and his wife made plans to renovate the tower and convert it into two apartments. The Beckford Tower Trust and Museum was created in 1977.

The tower has been owned by the Bath Preservation Trust since 1993 and is managed by its subdivision, the Beckford Tower Trust . In 1995 the tower was restored again. In 1972 Beckford's Tower was listed as a Grade I Historic Building. The ground floor of the tower building can be rented as a holiday home from the Landmark Trust .

architecture

The spiral staircase

The tower is 47 meters high and has three sections. The first section has a square plan, small windows and ends with Doric entablature and cornice . The second section has simple, square pillars that form three openings with recessed arches. The top section of the tower consists of a gilded lantern (or belvedere) based on the Peripteric Temple of Tivoli and the Tower of the Winds in Athens . The octagonal Belvedere has a cast iron roof supported by eight columns. The stone spiral staircase supported on cantilever girders leads to the 53 wooden steps that lead to the lantern at the top of the tower. At the base of the tower there was a fan heater that brought warm air up into the building.

At the bottom of the tower is an Italianate-style building. On the ground floor there was the Scarlet Salon and a vestibule with an extension that housed the kitchen and offices. Upstairs was the Crimson Salon, the Sanctuary, and the Library.

Cemetery and estate

Entrance gate with the upper part of the tower in the background

Between Beckford's house on Lansdown Crescent and the tower was a series of interconnected gardens called Beckford's Ride . Closest to the house was an Italianate-style terraced garden, followed by a conifer plantation . Above the plantation there was a quarry garden and a canal garden, then you entered a cave tunnel under a path. The tunnel led into the garden around the tower. Particularly noteworthy among the plants there were the Pinus arborea , the king fern ( Osmunda regalis ) and the Cistus alpina . You should consider the settlement of birds, e.g. B. nightingales , bloodlines and thrushes favor. The old quarry has been converted into an enclosed garden with fruits and vegetables.

Henry Goodridge designed a Byzantine entrance gate to the property. Bronze railings from Beckford's former grave in Bath Abbey Churchyard were later added. These sites were removed in World War II and replaced in 2000. The gardens were surrounded by stone walls about two meters high.

Beckford's grave in front of the tower

Parts of the property were bequeathed to the local parish after Beckford's death and consecrated as a cemetery in 1848. It was called Lansdown Cemetery and a network of grave sites has been designated. In 1947 and again in 1961 the cemetery was expanded. In addition to Beckford, a number of well-known Bath citizens were buried in the cemetery: Henry Goodrich , Field Marshal William Rowan , the Holburne family who founded the Holburne Museum , Anne (the wife of Sir Robert Bickerton, 2nd Baronet ) and the Irish feminist author Sarah Grand .

The cemetery was closed in 1992 and has been maintained by the local government and the Lansdown Cemetery Trust ever since .

museum

The tower houses a museum that displays furniture that was originally made for the tower, as well as paintings, prints, and set pieces from William Beckford's life as an author, collector, and art patron. Visitors can climb the spiral staircase to the restored Belvedere below the lantern of the tower and enjoy the panoramic view of the surroundings.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Beckford's Tower with Attached Wall and Railings . Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b c d Lansdown Cemetery and Beckford's Tower . Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  3. ↑ Michael Forsyth: Pevsner Architectural Guides: Bath . Yale University Press, New Haven 2003, ISBN 0-300-10177-5 , pp. 271-272.
  4. ^ Archway . Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  5. ↑ James Crathorne: The Royal Crescent Book of Bath . Collins & Brown, 1998, ISBN 1-85585-498-8 , pp. 144-147.
  6. ^ A b Lewis Saul Benjamin: The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill . Duffield, 1910, p. 324. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  7. ^ John Millington: Beckford's Tower, Bath: An Illustrated Guide. 7th edition. Bath Preservation Trust, Bath 2002, ISBN 1-898954-90-9 , p. 7.
  8. ^ John Millington: Beckford's Tower, Bath: An Illustrated Guide. 7th edition. Bath Preservation Trust, Bath 2002, ISBN 1-898954-90-9 , p. 8.
  9. ↑ a b c d e John Haddon: Portrait of Bath . Robert Hale, 1982, ISBN 0-7091-9883-3 , p. 179.
  10. ^ John Millington: Beckford's Tower, Bath: An Illustrated Guide. 7th edition. Bath Preservation Trust, Bath 2002, ISBN 1-898954-90-9 , p. 9.
  11. ↑ Beckford Tower. In: Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. British Newspaper Archive, February 28, 1931, accessed December 14, 2016 .
  12. ^ Fire Destroys Cemetery Chapel. In: Western Gazette. British Newspaper Archive, March 6, 1931, accessed December 14, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Beckford Tower. In: Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. British Newspaper Archive, July 2, 1932, accessed December 14, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Beckford Tower. In: Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. British Newspaper Archive, May 9, 1931, accessed December 14, 2016 .
  15. ^ John Millington: Beckford's Tower, Bath: An Illustrated Guide. 7th edition. Bath Preservation Trust, Bath 2002, ISBN 1-898954-90-9 , p. 10.
  16. ↑ Beckford's Tower . Pastscape. Historic England. English Heritage. ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 14, 2016.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pastscape.org.uk
  17. ^ John Millington: Beckford's Tower, Bath: An Illustrated Guide. 7th edition. Bath Preservation Trust, Bath 2002, ISBN 1-898954-90-9 , p. 13.
  18. ↑ Simon Jenkins: Discover Britain's Historic Houses: West Country . Reader's Digest, 2005, ISBN 0-276-44067-6 , p. 138.
  19. ↑ Beckford's Tower & Mortuary Chapel, Lansdown Cemetery. (No longer available online.) In: Images of England. Archived from the original on February 2, 2008 ; accessed on December 14, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.imagesofengland.org.uk
  20. ↑ Beckford's Tower. Landmark Trust, accessed December 14, 2016 .
  21. ↑ a b c Michael Forsyth: Pevsner Architectural Guides: Bath . Yale University Press, New Haven 2003, ISBN 0-300-10177-5 , p. 271.
  22. ↑ John Haddon: Portrait of Bath . Robert Hale, 1982, ISBN 0-7091-9883-3 , pp. 178-180.
  23. ↑ John Haddon: Portrait of Bath . Robert Hale, 1982, ISBN 0-7091-9883-3 , pp. 178-179.
  24. ↑ Beckford's Ride, Bath, England. Parks and Gardens Data Services, accessed December 15, 2016 .
  25. ↑ Timothy Mowl, Marion Mako: Historic Gardens of Somerset . Redcliffe, 2010, ISBN 978-1-906593-56-8 , pp. 159-161.
  26. ↑ James Bond: Somerset Parks and Gardens . Somerset Books, 1998, ISBN 0-86183-465-8 , p. 109.
  27. ↑ Beckford's Gate . Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  28. ^ Derek Ostergard: William Beckford, 1760-1844: An Eye for the Magnificent . Yale University Press, New Haven 2001, ISBN 0-300-09068-4 , p. 275.
  29. ↑ Michael Forsyth: Pevsner Architectural Guides: Bath . Yale University Press, New Haven 2003, ISBN 0-300-10177-5 , p. 272.
  30. ↑ Walls Enclosing Nursery Gardens (N and E Sides) and ride to Beckford's Gate . Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  31. ↑ Lansdown Cemetery and Beckfords Tower . Pastscape. Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  32. ↑ Appendix 1: Ensleigh, Bath. (PDF) Bath and North East Somerset Council, accessed December 15, 2016 .
  33. ↑ Frances Elizabeth Clarke (1854-1943). In: Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Ulster History Circle, accessed December 15, 2016 .
  34. ↑ Lansdown Cemetery. Bath and North East Somerset Council, accessed December 15, 2016 .
  35. ↑ Amy Frost: Cabinet Returns to Beckford's Tower . In: The Furniture History Society Newsletter . tape 172 , November 2008, p. 1–3 ( furniturehistorysociety.org [PDF; accessed December 15, 2016]).
  36. ↑ Beckford cabinet is a 'fine example'. BBC, accessed December 15, 2016 .
  37. ^ Beckford's Tower and Museum. ArtFund, accessed December 15, 2016 .

Web links

Commons : Beckford's Tower  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 24 ′ 25 "  N , 2 ° 22 ′ 49"  W.