The Castlebourne

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

in the parish of

Belbroughton Belbroughton ( ) is a village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove District of Worcestershire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 2,380. It is about six miles north of Bromsgrove, six miles east of Kidderminster and four ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

, England, was built as a sham castle towards the end of the eighteenth century and is similar in age and design to

Clent Castle Clent Castle is a sham ruin castellated folly in the grounds of Clent Grove (the site of Sunfield Children's Home) that is situated opposite the Fountain Inn on Adams Hill in Clent, Worcestershire, England. It was built in the late 18th century b ...

, another folly, about away in an adjacent parish of

Clent Clent is a village and civil parish in the Bromsgrove (district), Bromsgrove District of Worcestershire, England, southwest of Birmingham and close to the edge of the West Midlands conurbation. At the 2001 census it had a population of 2,600. Pa ...

. In the middle nineteenth century a house, Castlebourne (originally Castle Bourne) was built in a Gothic castle style close to the folly and connected by a wall about long and high with an archway. The folly, wall and house are designated as a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. The folly, and the later house, were built on a mound. The folly has a square three-bay plan. The two outer bays are formed by large circular two story corner towers. On the south side, the two towers have pointed windows (some blind), while on the first floor they have quatrefoil windows and relief mouldings above in form of Maltese crosses. The central bay has a blocked pointed doorway with hood mould and returns. The floor above the doorway has a blind pointed first floor window. The roof is of slate behind embattled parapets. The wall connecting the folly to the house faces south-west and has an embattled parapet above a moulded

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

Notes

References

* * *{{Citation , first=Peter , last=Hannafin , date=24 April 2008 , url=https://moderngovwebpublic.bromsgrove.gov.uk/documents/s2613/B20080379-SW , title=Construction of an access track - Castlebourne, Stourbridge Road, Belbroughton Folly castles in England Grade II listed buildings in Worcestershire Castles in Worcestershire Grade II listed castles