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The lost folly of Werrington

Werrington Park near the village of Ladycross, just a couple of miles north of Launceston is a privately owned landscaped estate and is the seat of the Duke of Northumberland. The grounds of the mansion are set in a very picturesque valley with a lake of serpentine style running through it. Almost all of the estate is surrounded by densely wooded areas, farmland and game reserves. Game fairs are held on the estate at certain times during the year.

The Morice family owned the estate from 1629 to 1775. Sometime during this 146 year period, although precisely when remains unclear, I can find no exact dates in the records, it is suggested Sir Humphry or William Morice built a folly on an open hill-side to serve as an eye catcher and also to admire the view over the fields and across the lake, back towards the house. Another folly built of red brick and believed to be a sham, was sadly demolished in the 1880's.

The Folly Hunter Barbara Mildred Jones

Barbara Jones was an English artist and author of many books covering many different subjects. One of the books she penned is titled "Follies and Grottoes", now out of print, but still available on the internet. In her book she chronicled many of the follies and monuments in the UK in her time around the 1950's. It is a great resource to myself and to other persons very fortunate to own a copy of it. Around 1952, Barbara visited the Werrington Park estate, and captured a very good black and white photograph of the Morice's eye catcher folly, "The Sugar Loaves".

The Sugar Loaves Folly

A quite bizarre piece of nonsense, in the most whimsical of folly architecture, this brilliant building the sugar loaves are 3 stubby cones perhaps 8ft in height of fashioned slate. Two of the "loaves" being set front and the third being set back, atop a rectangular podium of around 25ft in length and 10ft in height, of rusticated local stone and slate, sandwiched together. There is a central arched recess which once contained a seat where a lucky fellow could sit after an exhaustive hill climb to admire the beautiful vista across the park.

It is believed to have been modeled on the tomb of Horatii and Curatii in Rome.

This photograph is Copyright of Barbara Jones and is used by kind permission of her publisher.

The changing landscape.

Since Barbara visited and took her photograph above, the hill side where the Sugar Loaves stood has dramatically changed. A vast, and in places very dense and dark wood has grown up over it, and the area has been sealed off. The folly is now lost somewhere in the middle of the woods, and is forgotten.

Sugar Loaves uncovered.

I spent some time in the Summer of 2007 in Cornwall doing amongst other things, consuming delightful Cornish ale and researching for this site, and I decided to try and find the lost folly. After two attempts at trying to locate it without any success I was very lucky to bump into some local farm hands of the Werrington estate. After explaining my dilemma and quizzing them on the subject, the eldest informed me that he himself had seen them some years ago, hidden deep within a wood but could not quite remember where. The estate has many wooded areas but he pointed me in the direction he believed he saw it.

After parking my car in a very narrow lane I set off into the woods. It should be noted here that the estate is private, and permission must be sought. The woods are dark and very dense. A handheld GPS receiver is a must for occasions like these as I quickly lost sense of direction. There are no paths in the woods whatsoever so my progress was very slow. I emerged from one wood and I could see in the distance, the Manor house, after walking around a field of Maize I entered another wood, this time even more dense. I had been stumbling around in there for some 15 minutes or so, getting exceptionally hotter by the minute. For some unknown reason I just turned around. Hidden from all view, and looking like part of the woods themselves and perfectly camouflaged, the Sugar Loaves arch rose up in front of me.

The folly is so well concealed by the trees I nearly walked past it. The 3 cones themselves are beautifully covered in ivy. The stone work is showing signs of decay, but as it now has a wooded suit of armour surrounding it, it is thankfully shielded from the elements so there is no reason why it should not stand here alone in solitude, in its wood for many more centuries to come. I stood within the arch into a screen of trees, the smell of the aged stone and earth were overpowering and I tried to imagine the view that Barbara may have witnessed from the long vanished wooden seat, that can never be enjoyed again. A lovely ex eye catcher folly from the 18th century. Simply delightful.

I took many photos of the Sugar Loaves as they are in 2007. Perhaps over time, and maybe in another fifty four years they will become totally invisible. I took the true point GB Grid ref GPS position of their location for my personal records, but unusually for this site, I feel I cannot disclose it. To me It feels like this one should be left to rest, undisturbed, and to let nature take its course.

Walking back from the folly to my car I took this photo across the fields to the mansion, perhaps the view from the folly to the house was once like this, many years ago..

Visiting:-

On very private land, visiting the Sugar Loaves is not possible without very special permission.

Co-ords:-.............................................

 

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