Thorpe Tower

THORPE ST ANDREW

494/0/10017 PINEBANKS 16-MAY-06 Thorpe Tower

II Folly tower, circa 1880. Built of random knapped flint with red brick and limestone dressings. The roof is concealed behind a vertically-channelled brick parapet set on corbels. Square on plan with a central polygonal stair turret rising from a square base forming a porch on the east elevation. Stone broaches at the transition stage. The turret is lit by irregularly-spaced loops. The main tower is in five stages with the stair rising higher in two shorter stages to give access to the roof and terminating in a red brick belvedere with a castellated roof parapet and a corbelled base-course. There are three moulded brick string courses dividing the stages. On the north and south elevation at third floor level are square projecting oriel windows set on massive moulded stone corbels with a segmental relieving arch spanning between. The oriels have 3-light mullioned windows and tall slim sidelights in the return walls. On the west wall at this level is a 3-light mullioned window surmounted by a triangular tympanum with relief foliage carving. On the SW corner of the top stage is a circular oriel with a castellated roof parapet. 2-light mullioned windows in the top stage; the remaining fenestration composed of single-light openings with quadrant-moulded reveals and segmental heads, arranged singly and in pairs. There are blind first-floor quatrefoils on the north and south sides and ground floor entrances to the east and west. Above the west doorway (in the base of the stair turret) is a stone ribbon bearing the inscription 'Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci' ('He has gained every point who has combined the useful and the agreeable'), from Horace, Ars Poetica l.343. At ground floor level on the north side is a Gothic aedicule set on two short shafts with foliate capitals all on a projecting angled plinth. In the canopy is set a shield with the incised inscription 'HM Queen Kapiolani ascended this tower 6 June 1887'. Kapiolani, the Dowager Queen of Hawaii, was touring England on the occasion of the Jubilee of Queen Victoria. A prominent landmark at the top of the scarp slope above the River Wensum. Comparatively late for a folly tower, this a good example of an eclectic High-Victorian garden building. Ref. Last, R 'Towering Follies', Journal of Norfolk Gardens Trust 2003.