WESTERTON FOLLY AT NZ 2402031057

Westerton Folly is an observatory built around 1765 for Thomas Wright of Byers Green. It has also served as a reading room and, by 1924, as a council office. The structure is made of rubble stone with ashlar dressings and has no roof. The tall round tower consists of three storeys.

The ground floor features six shallow buttresses with offsets and coping. There is a rusticated round-headed surround to a blocked door on the east side, and a plain stone Tudor-arched surround remains between the second and third buttresses where another door once existed. The ground floor has cross arrow slits, while the first floor has a band with arrow slits and small lancet slits, likely for stair lights. Each upper floor has a round-headed opening facing north-east, although all the openings are blocked except for a lancet on the south-east side of the first floor and a larger opening on the second floor. There is a top band, and access to the interior is not available.

To the left of the door, there is a commemorative plaque that reads: "This observatory tower was erected by Thomas Wright born at Byers Green 1711 died there 1786. To commemorate his treatise THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE published 1750, this tablet was placed here by the University of Durham 1950."