Brown's Folly is a Grade II listed building in the Wiltshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 14 June 1988. Folly. 1 related planning application.
Brown's Folly
- WRENN ID
- twelfth-mullion-mist
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Wiltshire
- Constituency
- Melksham and Devizes MP: Brian Mathew (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 14 June 1988
- Type
- Folly
- Address
- Brown's Folly, Bathford Hill, Monkton Farleigh
- OS grid reference
- ST 794 660
- Coordinates
- 51.3932, -2.29631
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Brown's Folly is a folly built in 1848 by Mr. Wade Brown, located on Bathford Hill in Monkton Farleigh. The structure is made of coursed rubble stone and features a shallow hipped Welsh slate roof. It has a tapered square tower with an offset top stage. On the south side, there is a square-headed doorway with a 20th-century steel door. The datestone is inscribed with "W 1848 B/ C 1903 H." Below the top stage, there are oculus windows on the north, east, and south sides. The top stage includes round-arched openings with keystones and balustraded handrails, although the balustrading is missing on the north and west sides. The roof has deep bracketed eaves and a chamfered stone cornice below. This structure was built as an eyecatcher, reportedly to provide work for agricultural laborers during a slow period, and it offers fine views over Bath and the Avon valley. Wade Brown lived at Monkton Farleigh Manor House in the 1840s.
Local climate
Brown's Folly receives an average of 850 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 59% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 63% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 55% of listed buildings. Of these, 14 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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