S a x o n b u r y  T o w e r

Eight miles North from Heathfield and the Gibraltar tower, one comes across the Eridge Estate. Reputed for being the oldest enclosed deer park in England, and inherited by the Nevill family in 1448, there are a group of follies to be found here, the most outstanding being the delightful Camelotian Saxonbury tower. Rising 66 feet high and built on the highest point of the Eridge estate, on Saxonbury Hill, it is visible for miles around.

It is a round, brick built tower, probably once whitewashed, with arrow-slit windows and in a similar style to Heathfield's tower, a ring of decorative arches at its summit. It was originally topped with a small slate cone but this deteriorated and was replaced with the larger white painted cone we see today, disguising ariels for a mobile telephone company within it.

The Marquess of Abergavenny Henry Nevill, built this tower to mark the highest point on his estate. Above the doorway, set below a stone coronet are carved the initials 'H.A'. These may stand for Henry or Henrietta Abergavenny, as Lady Elizabeth Beauchamp brought her Burgavenny title with her before changing it to Abergavenny after marrying Edward Nevill. The date of the tower's construction is also carved, 1828.

The Tower's arched doorway is now sealed by its heavy metal door and secured by a strong modern lock. Although the tower does have a spiral staircase it would not be possible to climb the tower, without perhaps the aid of a ladder, -certainly not standard equipment to be carried on such folly hunting ventures- as the first 8 ft or so of stairs have been removed. This is indeed a great pity as the view from the top of the tower was renowned to be superb.

Saxonbury tower is surrounded by dense woodland and very thick Rhododendrons. Although the great storm of October 1987, which for 1 night, pounded the south coast of England with incredible ferocity with 100 mph winds, destroyed many of the trees on Saxonbury hill. Thankfully it failed to leave its mark on this magnificent tower.

Visiting:-

The tower is, I believe to be on private land, however a muddy bridal path does lead up to it from the 'B' road off the A267 below the hill.

Co-ords 557700, 132900/ TQ577329  

 

 E r i d g e  S h a m  S c r e e n

 

At the edge of the woods, about a quarter of a mile down the road from the tower, the estate office at Danegate Farm is screened off by a vast, castellated and buttressed corner tower with pleasing open quarterfoil windows and flanked by two huge sham ruin walls. These are modestly decorated with Gothic windows and pinnacles. The Marquess of Abergavenny had a strong objection to viewing farms and the like, and he had this excellent Sham screen erected, built slightly later than his tower, to improve his view.

The castellated and pinnacled design of the screen walls are strikingly similar to the Creech Grange arch in Dorset, although red brick was used here..

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