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This is a fairly small folly tower as far as they go, so not so well known as it`s not a prominent landmark like some. You can find it on the B3078 road between Wimborne and Cranborne, it was built around the early 1700`s, a similar time to Horton Tower which is only about 3 miles away.












The Philosopher
The builder was Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, who was a philosopher and also a man looking for somewhere to do his thinking. However two hundred yards from a road seems an odd place to choose, even if there were only horses around at the time and I doubt if shortage of land was the reason for his choice.


Mr Anthony Cooper, as he was at the time, had started in politics in 1695 at the age of 24 and in 1699 on becoming the 3rd Earl, sat in the Lords for the next 3 years. He retired from politics in 1702, to devote his time to philosophy, publishing a noted book on the subject in 1711. He died in 1713 at the age of 42, in Naples, Italy.
The family coat of arms can be seen on the side of the tower as shown in the photo. The tower or gazebo, - labeled as a round house on maps - which is two stories with a small basement, is still reasonably weatherproof and repairable but now has a definite lean to it and as it is unlikely to attract the tourists, as does its Italian cousin at Pisa, a visit sooner than later might be a good idea.

Visiting:-
There is no legal access from the road to get close to it.


Additional Photographs
These are full size and take longer to load.

Co-Ords: 404605 111056 / SU 046110  

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