PEEL TOWER AT OS SS 49123674

SS 4836-4936 BRAUNTON BRAUNTON

12/47 Peel Tower at O.S. SS49123674

• II

Peel Tower, built 1857 for Thomas Mortimer of Franklyn Cottage. Creeper-clad rubble 3-stage tower with first floor access to rear. Floors and roof collapsed. 3 square-headed openings with timber lintels on sides and rear of first stage, the sill of rear opening lowered by loss of rubble. Front wall opening has also been knocked out but semi-circular brick arch mostly survives. Square opening in top stage rear wall with timber lintel. The inner bottom stage walls are splayed in the corners. Originally "the lower basement part (was intended) for a greenhouse: the apartment above a study: and at the top an observatory; between the second and third compartment is a niche, intended for a statue of Sir R(obert) Peel", according to Billings Directory (1857). Originally the tower was surmounted by a castellated parapet and corner finials. (A small plaque in retaining wall near back door of Franklins Cottage is inscribed "Disraeli's Refuge : Sneering, Jeering, Satirical Ben/ most Specious of Sophists and Spiteful of men").

Listing NGR: SS4911736733