Folly Known As the Pleasure House is a Grade II listed building in the Torridge local planning authority area, England. First listed on 19 June 1989. Folly.
Folly Known As the Pleasure House
- WRENN ID
- plain-lantern-claret
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Torridge
- Constituency
- Torridge and Tavistock MP: Sir Geoffrey Cox (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 19 June 1989
- Type
- Folly
- Address
- Folly Known As the Pleasure House, Hartland
- OS grid reference
- SS 226 250
- Coordinates
- 50.99773, -4.52893
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Pleasure House is a folly that possibly dates back to the late 16th century but was remodeled in the later 18th century. It features coursed roughly square rubble walls and is currently a partly ruinous tall structure, with the western wall missing. The building is square in plan and has a large round-headed arch on the east side, made with dressed stone voussoirs and projecting imposts. There are signs of extensive alterations, including traces of windows that have been built up, evidence of a fireplace on the second floor, and a staircase.
The name "The Pleasure House" first appears in a letter from 1738 and is also shown on an early 18th-century map of the Abbey, which depicted the estate during the time of the two William Abbots in the later 16th century. The second Paul Orchard, who lived from 1739 to 1812, is reputed to have made changes to the building so that he could back his carriage in and enjoy the view.
Local climate
Folly Known As the Pleasure House sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,170 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 90% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 97% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 5 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 97% of listed buildings. Of these, 2 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
- No related consent applications matched
- 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
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