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E  a  t  e  r

The story behind this folly will not disappoint those who like a good folly tale. In fact there are two tales, both bizarre, and neither are very believable.

Jack the Treacle Eater [1]
The first is that a chap called, [ not unsurprisingly ] Jack, lived in the tower that sits atop the arch. Why anyone would to choose to live in a tiny tower, whose front door is accessed by the 30 foot climb up the archway, is unknown. Anyway the Jack in this first tale was a murderer who was being sheltered by his wife. The felon's good lady it seems worked in the kitchens of Barwick House, and she fed him food stolen from there, this mainly consisting of a diet of treacle, hence the name.




All photographs on this page submitted by and copyright of Gary Player

Jack the Treacle Eater [2]
Again we have a chap called Jack, and like the above gentleman, he liked a diet of treacle. In this instance though, instead of being supported by the Barwick Household without their knowledge, Jack was openly given treacle to give him sufficient energy and stamina for his job, that of a runner. The Messiter family who owned Barwick House, had a need for speedy mail delivery to and from London, so employed a 'runner' to carry out this work. To save people reaching for the atlas this is a distance of 110 miles each way, a little bit more than the average Sunday morning jog. Anyone with such a demanding job would surely have sought better accommodation than this to be provided by their employers, or more to the point, would anyone really be expected to deliver mail over a 220 mile round trip ?


The Truth ?
Well no-one is really sure, and to my mind the truth is very unlikely indeed to be any of the above. Maybe a corruption of the truth led to the birth of one of the above tales. However in 1996 restoration work found the inside walls of the tower, to have compartments similar to a dove cote, access for birds being possible by holes at the top of the tower.
It does seem though that the four follies were built at the then boundaries of the Messiter land, and instead of plain markers something with a bit more interest and enigma was created.

Co-Ords: 356310 114210 / ST 563142  

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