Folly At Hare Hill Park

The folly or grotto at Hare Hill Park is located approximately 10 meters south-west of Hare Hills House and dates from around 1900 or earlier. Constructed from gritstone boulders and rubble laid in irregular courses, it features a cast-iron water wheel. This low, single-room building is set on a small mound and measures about 5 meters square with rounded corners and a flat roof. Currently, it stands around 2.5 meters high, although it was likely taller originally.

The most notable feature is the small water wheel, approximately 1 meter in diameter, located on the southern side. It is powered by water flowing from a small pipe and stone channel on the roof, which then falls into a rectangular pool below the building. The north wall contains a low blocked doorway on the left, with a deeply-set small square window to its right. On the west side, facing the drive, there is a deep niche about 45 centimeters high, while the east side, facing the house, has a shallow curved recess with a stone bench, with the boulders forming the outer corners partly tumbled.

This ornamental garden building is designed in the style of an 18th-century grotto. The interior may have served as a pumping house for the water supply to the wheel, and its proximity to the house suggests it was intended as an eye-catcher for those inside. The small size of the wheel and doorway indicates it may also have been designed as an educational novelty for the public park, which was established between 1900 and 1902. Hare Hills House was owned by the Newall family and leased to the newly-formed Littleborough Urban District Council in 1900, shortly before the park was laid out.