The Hartcliff Folly (or Tower) is a stone structure south-west of

Penistone Penistone ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, which had a population of 22,909 at the 2011 census. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is west of Barnsley, n ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The

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 ...

was built in 1856 by a linen merchant called Henry Richardson and stands at above sea level. Richardson also built

Hartcliffe Lodge Hartcliffe is the name of both a council ward and an Outer Suburb of the city of Bristol in the United Kingdom which lies within that ward. The ward contains the areas of Hartcliffe and Headley Park, as well as small portions of Withywood and B ...

before becoming the first Mayor of the borough of

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

. The tower may be a Folly (a structure built for no reason other than to demonstrate the social and economic status of its owner), but it has an internal spiral staircase and some believe that it was used as a viewing platform for game shooting. Another idea is that it was used as a look out for Mr. Richardson returning from

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

on business. The furthest landmark visible from the tower is

Hawkstone Park Hawkstone Park is was a destination on the English Grand Tour and is a historic landscape park with pleasure grounds and gardens historically associated with Soulton Hall and Hawkstone Hall. It is located north east of the small village o ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

(60 miles away). The Folly had fallen into disrepair but was restored in 2002 by Mr. Jeff Pears, upon whose land it is sited. He rebuilt it at his own expense as a gift to the community of Penistone. It has since occasionally been open to the public, such as on 1 August 2006 when

hosted the '

Yorkshire Day Yorkshire Day is a yearly celebration on 1 August to promote the historic county of Yorkshire, England. It was celebrated by the Yorkshire Ridings Society in 1975, initially in Beverley, as "a protest movement against the local government re ...

' celebrations. Hartcliff folly sunset

References

{{Coord, 53.5130, -1.6636, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Buildings and structures in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley Tourist attractions in Barnsley Folly towers in England Towers in South Yorkshire Penistone Towers completed in 1856