The Mount, or Polly Peachum's Tower, is a hunting tower near Wensley and about a mile south-east of Bolton Hall, in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, England. It is 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 ...

History

The tower was probably built in the late 17th or early 18th century, by the 1st Duke or 2nd Duke of Bolton. It is shown on a map of 1723, when it stood in unenclosed parkland, thought to have been used for hunting. The tower was presumably built as a hunting tower, and also perhaps to make the view from Bolton Hall, about a mile to the north-west across a valley, more picturesque. In an estate plan of 1737, it is shown with a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

, standing in a square enclosure. In the 1790s it is referred to in letters as "the Temple in Mount Park" and is regarded as a

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 ...

. It is known as "Polly Peachums's Tower", after

Lavinia Fenton Lavinia Powlett, Duchess of Bolton (1708 – 24 January 1760), known by her stagename as Lavinia Fenton, was an English actress who was the mistress and later the wife of the 3rd Duke of Bolton. She was probably the daughter of a naval lieutenan ...

, an actress and singer who played Polly Peachum in the original production in 1728 of ''

The Beggar's Opera ''The Beggar's Opera'' is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satiri ...

''.

Charles Powlett, 3rd Duke of Bolton Charles Powlett (sometimes spelled Paulet), 3rd Duke of Bolton (3 September 168526 August 1754), styled Earl of Wiltshire from 1685 until 1699, and Marquess of Winchester from 1699 until 1722, was a British landowner and Whig politician who sat ...

, had separated from his wife a few weeks after their wedding in 1713, and in 1728 he fell in love with Lavinia Fenton. They lived together happily and discreetly, and they had three sons. They married in 1751. It is thought that they seldom used the Bolton estate, but the tower may have been refurbished for Lavinia Fenton, giving rise to a story that the tower was built to celebrate their marriage. The Bolton Estate is owned by the Duke's descendants, the Orde-Powlett family."Derelict Georgian tower on the Bolton estate in the Yorkshire Dales to be restored as a small entertainment venue hosting shooting lunches"
''

The Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

'', 28 April 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2022.

Description

As seen in 2021, the tower is partially ruinous and has no roof. It is built of coursed limestone ( Great Scar limestone) with

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

dressings. It is square and has two storeys, the first floor, which is higher than the ground floor, has is a large window at the centre of each wall. A third of the south-east corner has collapsed, and the tops of the south and east windows are missing. In April 2021, the owners of the Bolton estate applied for planning permission to bring the tower back into use as a small entertainment space, honouring its original purpose by using it to host shooting lunches for their guests.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mount, North Yorkshire Wensleydale Grade II listed buildings in North Yorkshire Towers completed in the 18th century Towers in North Yorkshire Folly buildings in England