Discovering Oxygen at Wiltshire's Atlantis

Anyone who has studied chemistry will be familiar with the name Joseph Priestley (1733 - 1804). Priestley was the clergyman chemist who is credited with the discovery of oxygen in August 1774.

Oxygen, which Priestley called "dephlogisticated air", was only one of the "airs" that he discovered during his experiments. Priestley also isolated: nitric oxide (NO); hydrogen chloride (HCl); ammonia (NH3); nitrous oxide (N2O); carbon monoxide (CO); and sulphur dioxide (SO2). Priestley also conducted electrical experiments, and his dabblings with charged spheres lead him to propose that the electrical force followed an inverse-square law. This relationship was formalised and published in 1784 by French physicist Charles Augustin de Coulomb, and became known as Coulomb's law.

Priestley's greatest gift to the world was probably his method for making soda water. Thinking that soda water might cure scurvy, he provided the method to Captain James Cook for his second voyage. If only he had provided them with some lemons and limes to go in it, his idea may have worked!

When Priestly discovered oxygen he was resident at Bowood House near Calne in Wiltshire, as a guest of Lord Shelburne who had provided him with lodgings and a laboratory.

Bowood House today is a shadow of its former self. At its peak the house consisted of the "Big House" and the "Little House" which were connected by a huge drawing room. In the modern era Bowood become too expensive to maintain, so in 1956  the "Big House" and the drawing room were demolished. During this rationalisation of the house a dining room designed by Robert Adam was auctioned off to Lloyd's of London.  Lloyd's had the drawing room rebuilt in their London offices, and  today this part of Bowood House can be found on the 11th floor of their Lime Street offices. All that remains of Bowood house today is just the "Little House", but this name does a disservice to what is still a rather substantial country residence.

The grounds of Bowood House were designed by Lancelot "Capability" Brown, and the centerpiece of his design was a sizeable lake. However, one thing stood in the way of Capability Brown's lake, and that was the village of Manning's Hill!

To enable the lake to be constructed the residents of Mannings Hill had to be relocated, and in 1766 they were persuaded to move to nearby villages such as Sandy Lane. Once the former village was empty Capability Brown had it flooded to form the sinuous lake that is seen today. A lake that is almost 1 km long covering an impressive area of 45 acres.

It seems that parts of the village remain submerged in the lake to this very day and in 2007 divers found the remains of two cottages and stone walls in the lake's murky depths.

So not only does Wiltshire boast its own ghost town, it also boasts its own version of Atlantis!

Bowood House.

The laboratory where Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen.

Bowood's Lake, but what lies beneath its surface?

A Doric temple folly on the lakeside. 

Pictures: Wiltshire (August 2016).

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Creech Folly

The stone archway shown below is Grange Arch (also known as Creech Folly) which sits atop Ridgeway Hill, near Steeple in Dorset. The folly is essentially a stone wall inset with archways and surmounted by battlements, which was built around 1745 by the then owner of Creech Grange, Denis Bond. It is said that Bond built this folly atop the hill so he could look up upon it from the Grange, and survey the surrounding countryside from the folly. The structure was never apparently built with any practical purpose in mind other than being an eye-catcher and demonstrating Bond's not-inconsiderable wealth.

The Grange itself dates from the second half of the 1500s, when the original house was built by Sir Oliver Lawrence (1507–1559). Lawrence was an ancestor of the first American president, George Washington, and this area of Dorset has connections to the nascent United States of America. I will explore some of these connections in a later post.

Creech Folly.

Looking from the folly down towards Creech Grange.

The Grange.

Pictures: Dorset (May 2015).

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Sturt's Folly

In last week’s blog post I looked at an unusual legend surrounding an 800 year-old Oak tree near the village of Woodlands in Dorset. Two miles to the South-West of Woodlands is the village of Horton, which is home to another sight worthy of mention, the folly known as Horton Tower.

Horton Tower was built in 1750 by the Lord of Horton Manor, Humphrey Sturt, who was an architect and also an MP for Dorset (1745 – 1786). The exact reason why the tower was built is unclear. The practice of folly building was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, and often they were built purely to be admired as eye-catching constructions as opposed to having any real practical purpose. Horton Tower may have served a purpose however, with some suggesting that it was built to be used as an observatory for star gazing, whilst others suggest it was used by Humphrey Sturt to watch nearby hunts.

The brick tower has a triangular foot-print with round turrets at each corner and rises up to a height of 140 feet (43 metres), which supposedly made it the tallest non-religious building in England at the time of its construction. The tower’s shape and style is similar to that of King Alfred’s Tower on the Stourhead estate in Somerset, which was built in the 1760s. King Alfred’s tower measures in at a height of 161 feet (49 metres), and it is possible that it was built taller than Horton Tower in a purposeful act of one-upmanship.

The other piece of history related to the village of Horton, that is worthy of mention, is that it is the location where James Scott the 1st Duke of Monmouth was captured after the failed Monmouth Rebellion. Following the Duke’s defeat at the battle of Sedgemoor on the 6th July 1685, he fled towards Dorset where he is said to have hid in a ditch under an ash tree in Horton disguised as a shepherd. Sadly for the Duke his hiding place was disclosed by a local and he was captured on the 8th July, and then beheaded at Tower Hill in London on the 15th July. His beheading was not swift nor merciful; it apparently took between five and eight blows to cleave his head from his body!

For those that want to know more, the story of the Monmouth Rebellion features in Andrew May's Bloody British History Somerset, which is available on Amazon.

Horton Tower.

Pictures: Dorset (May 2015).

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Maud Heath's Causeway

On Wick Hill, near the village of Bremhill in Wiltshire, stands a monument to a lady called Maud Heath. The monument which was erected in 1838 consists of a plinth which is capped off by the statue of a lady in a bonnet. The base of the plinth bears the inscription: "Thou who dost pause on this aerial height - Where Maud Heath's Pathway winds in shade and light - Christian wayfarer in a world of strife - Be still and consider the Path of Life".

It seems that Maud Heath was a local 15th Century land owner, who held properties in both Langley Burrell and Chippenham and who is remembered locally for a folly that she commissioned.

Maud was apparently concerned that the local people from the villages of Bremhill, Foxham, Tytherton and Langley Burrell were having difficulties getting from their villages to the market in Chippenham, as they had to cross the marshy River Avon floodplain (a route that Maud had seemingly used for most of her life herself). So in response to her concern, in June 1474 (the year of her death) Maud provided a trust with the finance to enable a 4.5 mile cobble causeway to be built from Wick (in Bremhill) to Chippenham. This causeway was further improved by the trust in 1811 when the part of the causeway that crossed the River Avon was updated to include a bridge made up of 64 small brick arches. These brick arches can still be seen today as they raise the footpath up above the level of the local road that follows the route of the causeway - a road which is still shown on OS Maps today as "Maud Heath's Causeway".

The monument to Maud Heath on Wick Hill.

Maud wearing her bonnet.

The inscription at the base of the monument.

A marker near the monument on Wick Hill.

The bridge on the causeway which crosses the River Avon.

Looking along the bridge.

The church at the start of the bridge.

Pictures, Wiltshire (April 2014).

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Beware Chalk Pit!

It seems to me that recently this blog has focused on a number of weird and unusual monuments. Keeping to this theme I have recently visited another striking monument, this one being dedicated to a horse.

A few miles west of Winchester is Farley Mount Country Park, which is named after the local hill (Farley Mount). This hill is home to a folly, which is unsurprisingly known as the “Farley Monument”. The monument stands in memory of a horse named “Beware Chalk Pit”, which is reportedly buried beneath the monument. The horse in question was owned by a Paulet St. John Esq., and it is said that whilst out fox hunting in September 1733, that the horse and rider fell into a twenty five foot deep chalk pit. Both rider and horse survived this calamity and in October of the following year this “lucky” horse was entered into the Hunters Plate on Worthy Downs under the name of “Beware Chalk Pit”. The horse won the race, and this victory is presumably the reason why the owner created such a magnificent folly in honour of the animal.

The inscription on the monument explains the story: “Underneath lies buried a horse, the property of Paulet St. John Esq., that in the month of September 1733 leaped into a chalk pit twenty-five feet deep afoxhuntiing with his master on his back and in October 1734 he won the Hunters Plate on Worthy Downs and was rode by his owner and was entered in the name of "Beware Chalk Pit".”

What the inscription does not explain however, is how much was the prize money for winning the Hunters Plate, and did Paulet St. John have any change left over after building such an impressive folly?

The Monument.

The explanation.

The view from inside the monument.

Pictures, Hampshire (February 2014).

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King Alfred’s Folly

Near Stourton in Wiltshire a rather striking triangular tower can be found. The tower is known as King Alfred's Tower (or King Alfred’s Folly) and it is part of the Stourhead estate.

Construction work on the tower was commissioned in 1762 by the banker Henry Hoare II and the project was completed in 1779. The tower stands 49 metres (161 ft) high, and is essentially three round towers connected to form a single triangular tower, which is comprised of over a million bricks. The entrance to the tower is guarded by a 10 ft high statue of King Alfred the Great (for another statue of King Alfred in Winchester, see my "Dead Man's Plack" post).

The tower is said to stand near the location of 'Egbert's stone' where it is believed that in May 878 King Alfred the Great rallied his Saxon troops before the Battle of Edington. A battle which saw Guthrum’s Great Danish Heathen army, which had been terrorising the countryside, finally defeated.

Apparently (although I did not find it myself) near the tower there lies a stone which is about 1 metre across and has the profile of a bowl. It seems that the purpose of this “bowl” is not actually known, however one proposed idea is that during the plague the bowl would have been “filled with vinegar so that coins left as payment for food and provisions could be sterilised, and outsiders would leave food and collect the coins as payment, so that the residents of a village infected by plague need have no contact with the outside world, and thereby avoid passing on the disease.” Which is an interesting theory, if it is true.

A picture of the stone / bowl can be found here.

Another piece of often quoted history related to the tower is that it was damaged in July 1944 when a plane headed for the nearby Zeals Airfield collided with the tower in fog, killing all the occupants of the aircraft.

As you can tell from the below pictures, the way in which the tower stands alone in a clearing in the woods makes for a rather striking sight!

King Alfred's Tower from a distance.

The front of the tower.

The tower from the rear showing its triangular nature.

The statue of King Alfred over the tower's entrance.

Inscription above the tower's entrance. It is interesting to note that this inscription refers to 879 AD, instead of 878 AD.

Inside, looking up.

View from the top.

View from the top.

Nearby tourist information board.

Pictures, Wiltshire (August 2013).

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The Camberley Obelisk - Signalling Hellfire

Having lived and worked in the Camberley area for a number of years in my 20's I had often wondered why the town had a street called “Obelisk Way”. It was only after visiting the Hellfire Caves and the Dashwood Mausoleum in West Wycombe that it all became clear to me.

If you ever visit Camberley look out for Knoll Road and the Council Offices, behind which you will find the small Camberley Park. At the back of this park on top of a small hill there is an interesting structure, which is known as the Camberley Obelisk.

The Obelisk is the remains of a brick tower that today is about 30 ft high. Originally the tower would have been around 100 ft high, and would have consisted of a number of storeys with access provided by an internal staircase. The Obelisk was built by John Norris around 1765 to 1770 (before Camberley existed), and in that era the surrounding land would have been open heathland, allowing for good visibility from the top of the Obelisk for a number of miles.

It is not fully known why the Obelisk was built, but the most popular theory was that is was built on the top of the hill as a signalling tower. Some believe that this particular tower was a heliograph, a signalling tower that reflects sunlight to send messages. One of John Norris' known friends was Sir Frances Dashwood (founder of the Hellfire club), and in 1751 Dashwood built St Laurence's Church atop the Hellfire Caves in West Wycombe, around 20 miles away from Camberley. St Laurence's church is adorned with a large golden ball (for a picture see my previous blog post “The Home of Hellfire”) and one interesting, but unproven, theory is that the golden ball on St Laurence's church and the Obelisk at Camberley were used to relay messages between the two friends. One theory suggests that they used the heliographs to pass bets to each other and another suggests that they were involved in an espionage network and used the system to exchange secret messages.

What ever the truth, the history of this well hidden building is likely to be interesting.

Entering Camberley Park from the Council Offices car park.

The Obelisk at the back of the park, hiding behind trees.

First view of the Obelisk.

The Obelisk.

A peek around the back.

Inside, looking up.

View over Camberley, from the base of the Obelisk.

Some coincidental graffiti.

The information board in the park.

Pictures, Camberley - Surrey (July 2013).

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