The 'Folly'

We had been wondering what to do with an overgrown section of the garden for some time and eventually decided we would build a folly. This is to resemble a section of a ruined castle with a series of walls, one of which will have an archway leading to a paved courtyard in front of a tower within which we are building a spiral staircase.

Sketch of the proposed folly

Outline of the proposed folly

We started work clearing the site in February 2006 and by March had removed all the brambles and levelled the area ready to mark out the floor plan. The foundations were dug and filled with concrete ready for the first courses of bricks to be laid at the beginning of April.

Beginning the tower and staircase

Casting one of the steps for the staircase

One of the steps ready to be put in place

Progress on the staircase - May 2006

Starting work on the door arch - end of May 2006

Completion of the door arch - end of June 2006

Building the archway

Work just started on the archway leading to the the courtyard ( mid July 2006 )

Progress on the archway

Progress on the archway ( mid August )

End August 2006

Nearing completion of the arch - end August 2006

Completion of the arch Sept. 2006

The wall and archway surrounding the courtyard is now complete early in September 2006.

Spring 2007 and it's time to get on with building up the tower. One of the first things to do was build the wooden platform at the top of the spiral staircase.

The platform finished with a temporary wood block where the newel post will be.

Starting to build in the 'broken down' section at the top of the tower - March 2007.

The first day of Spring with the clocks forward to British Summer Time and we've finished building the tower. So all that remains to be done now is lay the paving in the courtyard and some tidying up around ready for the planting.

The newel post and spindles at the top of the staircase

The finished tower

Building complete ready for paving the courtyard - April 2007

End of April and the folly is finally complete. The inner courtyard has been paved and the suggestion of a path laid in the outer courtyard, which has been gravelled.

The paved inner courtyard

My wife 'V' has been making a mosaic section of flooring copied from a Roman villa and this has been laid in a corner of the paved inner courtyard.

Finally we built a low ruined wall to define the entrance to the outer courtyard and act as a barrier to contain the gravel.

The outer courtyard of the completed Folly - April 2007.

The armour from 'Project' 1 in the courtyard - August 2007

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