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FABULOUS FOLLIES
...and Landscape Curiosities

Staffordshire

BIDDULPH                                                              SJ 892 591

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Biddulph Grange Arch











Date taken: 03/04/2012

BIDDULPH

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  ​Serpentine Tunnel Entrance











  Date taken: 03/04/2012

BIDDULPH

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The Cheshire Cottage

The Cheshire Cottage in the garden of Biddulph Grange is only a façade of the entrance to pass from one part of the garden into another.








Date taken; 03/04/2012

BIDDULPH

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  ​Egypt 












 
Date taken: 03/04/2012

BIDDULPH

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  The Ape of Troth

  The Ape of Troth is inside the Egyptian Pyramid.





















  Date taken: 03/04/2012

BIDDULPH                                                               SJ 892 591

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The Chinese Temple

The Chinese Temple and garden at Biddulph Grange is a late example of the fashion in Britain for building in the Chinese style. It was built by John Bateman 1848-1860.








Date taken: 03/04/2012

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 BIDDULPH

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Garden seat

The stone seat at the end of the Lime Avenue was designed by Edward Cooke. 









Date taken: 03/04/2012

BIDDULPH

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The Shelter House

The Shelter House in the garden at Biddulph Grange has been reconstructed by using archaeological evidence and old photographs.







Date taken: 03/04/2012

BIDDULPH

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Stone seat











Date taken: 03/04/2012

BIDDULPH

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  Biddulph Old Hall

  The tower may have been a belvedere.

BLYMHILL AND WESTON-UNDER-LIZARD                SJ 810 104

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 Temple of Diana

 The Temple of Diana at Weston Park was designed by   James Paine for Sir Henry Bridgeman in about 1760 as   an orangery and garden room.

 In the circular tea room there are painted panels by   G.B.I.Columbe depicting the life of Diana. The ceiling in   the octagonal music room has a painted trompe l'oeil sky.

COLWICH                                                              SJ 981 216

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  Shugborough Railway Tunnel

  
​Thomas William Anson, the 1st Earl of Lichfield, objected   to a railway line going across Shugborough Park, and so a   750 yard long tunnel was constructed. 

  The ornamental portals were designed by architect, John   livock in 1847. 

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 Old Railway Bridge

FARLEY                                                                    SK 075 435

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 The Shot Tower, Alton Towers

FARLEY                                                                    SK 074 432

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The Choragic Monument

After Charles Talbot, the 15th Earl of Shrewabury, died in 1827, a Choragic Temple was erected with the inscription, 'He Made The Desert Smile'. His nephew, John, who became known as 'Good Earl John', continued to develop the Alton Towers estate.

There are other choragic temples are at;
     ALLOWAY Strathclyde 'Burns Monument'
     EDINBURGH Lothian 'Dugald Stewart Monument'
     TATTON Cheshire 'The Monument'

FARLEY                                                                    SK 069 430

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The Flag Tower

The Gothic styled Flag Tower at Alton Towers was built in the early 19th century.

FARLEY                                                                   SK 076 432

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The Pagoda

The three-stored Pagoda at Alton Towers is based on the To-Ho pagoda in Canton, it was completed in 1827 and was called the Duck Tower.

It has a 70 feet high fountain.


ILAM                                                                          SK 135 508

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Ilam Cross

Ilam Cross was built as a memorial to Mary the wife of Jesse Watts-Russell, the squire of Ilam. It was built in 1840 in the style of the Eleanor Crosses, like the one at HARDINGSTONE, Northamptonshire.

Other reproduction medieval crosses are at:
       ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH, Leicestershire
       HELMSLEY, North Riding
       OXFORD, Oxfordshire
​       SLEDMERE, East Riding

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KIDSGROVE                                                            SJ 857 573

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Mow Cop

Mow Cop was built for Randle Baker Wilbraham in 1754 as a two-storey summerhouse.

In 1807, the first open-air camp meeting was held at Mow Cop and Primitive Methodism was founded in 1812 after meetings there.
In 1907, it was estimated that about 100,000 people gathered there for the centenary meeting.

See also Gwennap Pit at ST DAY Cornwall.

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LICHFIELD                                                            SK 121 102

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  St Chad's Well

 
In 669, St Chad became Bishop of Mercia and a spring   at Lichfield was used by him for baptisms.

  The well became a centre of devotion and in the 1830s,   James Rawson, a local physician, had an octagonal stone   structure erected over it. It was demolished in 1950 and   the replaced with the present structure.

  It is still regarded as a place of pilgrimage.

Copyright Ray Blyth 2018