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Probably most people have already seen this on any television program that deals with the Suffolk countryside, or holiday industry in this area.
It is certainly not a folly as it has a very specific use, but none the less most people would consider it as such.

Holiday Village.

The local Scottish landowner, playwright, and barrister, Mr Glencairn Stuart Ogilvie was a very early Billy Butlin, in that he decided he would build a Holiday Village, which in the early 1900's was something of a new idea.
So the small fishing village of Thorpe was duly turned, under Mr Ogilvie's supervision, into Thorpeness.
An immediate problem was the supply of water to this new venture, and so "The House in the Clouds" came about in 1923.

Thirty Thousand Gallons.

It consists of a water tank, capable of holding around 30,000 gallons, sat on top of a five storey tower. The tower was in fact designed to be used as a dwelling, and this first part is approximately 60 foot tall.
On top of this- covered in the same wood cladding and slightly larger so it overhangs its supporting tower all round - is the water tank itself.
The tank, in an effort to further disguise it, has fake windows and a chimney from the dwelling below, rising out of its pitched roof.
The water tank has long since been dispensed with, and the area it occupied has been converted to further living space. Also the windows visible in the top section are now functional, and no longer false.
The name 'The House in the Clouds' incidentally came from the title of a children's poem written by the wife of the first inhabitant.

Visiting:-
It is located off the B1353.

Co-Ords: 646850 259880 / TM 468598  

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