Faringdon Folly Tower has stood proudly as a pinnacle on the top of Folly Hill for nearly 90 years and together with its surrounding woodland, provides an incredibly special place for local residents and visitors to Faringdon to enjoy. Unfortunately, however, over the years the prevailing winds and lashing rain have taken their toll on the Tower’s brickwork leading to mortar erosion and water ingress. This is particularly severe on the west-facing wall. Added to the constant battering by prevailing weather conditions, temperature differentials and internal condensation have joined forces resulting in severely decaying structural timbers, including damage to the stairwell.
When Lord Berners created Folly Tower back in 1935 as a place to impress his guests with the wonderful views it commands over the town of Faringdon and beyond to the Thames Valley and Berkshire Downs, he established the Folly Tower Trust. It is the Trust’s responsibility to care for the building and its surrounding four acres of circular woodland with its majestic Scots Pine and broadleaf trees, some of which are now more than 200 years old. Being the last major folly to be built in England, Faringdon’s Folly Tower has been hailed as one of Britain’s most important follies.
Whilst the Folly Tower Trust undertook the first phase of restoration works back in 2014, which involved replacing the roof, securing the staircase to the outer wall, installing main electricity, information boards and all relevant legally required safety items to meet fire and safety standards, there is now an urgent need to start work on phase two of the restoration.
In addition to the replacement of some 8,000 plus bricks, and repointing the severely damaged mortar, the windows need restoration, the rooftop viewing platform needs resurfacing and scaffolding needs to be erected on all four sides of the 100 ft high tower. The total cost of this remedial work will be just under £350,000 if undertaken soon. If the work does not start in 2024/25, the damage will get worse and costs for materials and labour could escalate still further.
Although the Folly Tower Trust has applied for grant funding to help with the restoration costs, they also need to have the support of the LOCAL community to help. With YOUR support, the Trust hopes they can raise £50,000 to help cover the cost of the repointing work. There are around 8000 bricks affected which equates to £6 per brick. According to the 2021 census, Faringdon’s population stood at 8,620 adults and children. If everyone who lives in Faringdon bought just one brick for £6 this would raise over £51,000 and would cover the cost of this part of the repair work.
To help the Folly Tower Trust save Faringdon Folly Tower, to make your donation for one or more bricks, the process is simple.
- PAYPAL: to donate using PayPal, you need to have an account. However, by donating to paypal.com/gb/fundraiser/charity/3149101 there are no costs or commissions, and PayPal Giving Fund will take care of Gift Aid.
- BANK TRANSFER: Account: Faringdon Folly Tower Trust, Sort code 30.93.18, account# 18433960.
If you are a UK taxpayer, please also fill in and return a GIFT AID FORM so that the Trust can add another 25% to your donation. - JUSTGIVING: donate to justgiving.com/page/folly-tower-essential-repairs. (Approx "payment processing cost" is 1.9% and 20p per transaction. There is also an additional 5% fee in processing the Gift Aid) But this does accept Google Pay, Apple Pay, all major Credit/Debit cards, as well as PayPal.
If you would like to hold a ‘Brick Buying’ Fundraiser, any support you can give will be greatly appreciated to help Folly Tower stand proud for the future.
To find out more please visit Faringdonfolly.org.uk
Images ©Andrew Townsend Architects
