Boondoggle

By Boondog

Clavell Tower:-)

Had a wonderful day at Kimmeridge Bay:-)That rhymes:-)Such a beautiful place!!This shot is of Clavell Tower!!Here goes the info overload!!!!

The location alone is enough to make the heart beat faster. This 1830s cliff-top observatory and folly, now an idyllic little bolthole for two, has sweeping views over Kimmeridge Bay and is the only landmark for miles along this dramatic stretch of the Jurassic Coast. The three-storey Clavell Tower, with its distinctive Tuscan colonnades, was built by Rev John Richards Clavell of Smedmore, and it was here that Thomas Hardy courted his first love, the coastguard's daughter Eliza Bright Nicols. The tower appears in his Wessex poems and also provided the inspiration for PD James's novel The Black Tower. Gutted by fire in the 1930s, it remained derelict until the Landmark Trust, the charity that rescues historic buildings, intervened and raised money to dismantle it, move it 25 metres back from the crumbling cliff edge and restore it to its former glory.  You can't drive right up to Clavell Tower; you have to park and complete the journey on foot (it's a 10-minute walk). But it is worth the effort. The tower's transformation is extraordinary. Each floor of the pristine, plaster-pink building houses a key room; the kitchen is on one level, the bedroom on another and on the top floor is a cosy, light-filled living room with a working fireplace. Where better to curl up after an invigorating ramble along the headland?If anyone wants to rent it out!!!I'm available:-)lol

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