52°24′57″N 2°06′46″W / 52.41583°N 2.11278°W
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.[1][2] It was built in the late 18th century by Thomas Liell,[3] and it has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.[4][5]
English Heritage describes the building thus:
Folly Tower 150 Yards South of Clent Grove
- Grade: II
- Date Listed: 29 March 1983
Folly tower. Late C18. Handmade brick with stone dressings. Twin round towers linked by lower central section. Three storeys with corbel table and embattled parapets. Window openings have stone architraves. Towers have pointed-arched windows to front and sides, quatrefoil windows at first floor level and windows shaped like Maltese crosses above. Linking section has a pointed archway on the ground floor and a pointed first floor window.
This folly tower appears to have been of similar design to that at Castle Bourne, Bell End, Belbroughton
— English Heritage.[4]
- ^ Currie 1996.
- ^ "Half the people who live in Clent don't know where Clent Castle is" (Reyburn 1998)
- ^ "[Around 1782] Thomas Liell, who had been a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and former Commander of the Stafford, East Indianman; then became the owner of The Gate House. He rebuilt the house close to the original and also had a folly built to imitate a ruined castle. He changed the name to Clent Grove" (Partington 2013).
- ^ a b English Heritage staff 2012.
- ^ Brooks & Pevsner 2007, p. 232.