Hadlow Castle was an 18th-century country house in

Hadlow Hadlow is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent, England. It is situated in the Medway valley, north-east of Tonbridge and south-west of Maidstone. The Saxon name for the settlement was Haeselholte (in t ...

, Kent, England, built in the fashionable Strawberry Hill 'Gothic' style. The house was gradually enlarged and extended during the 19th century and finally demolished in the 20th, apart from a prospect tower and ancillary buildings. The surviving Grade I Listed Hadlow Tower, locally known as May's Folly, was restored in 2013.

History

Hadlow Castle replaced the manor house of Hadlow Court Lodge. It was built over a number of years from the late 1780s, commissioned by Walter May in an ornate Gothic style. The architect was J. Dugdale. His son, Walter Barton May inherited the estate in 1823, and another inheritance in 1832 from his wife's family. He added a octagonal tower in 1838, the architect was

George Ledwell Taylor George Ledwell Taylor (31 March 1788 – 1 May 1873) was an architect and landowner who lived in London. Life Taylor was born on 31 March 1788 and educated at Rawes's academy, Bromley. He became a pupil of the architect James Burton (proper ...

. A octagonal lantern was added in 1840 and another smaller tower was added in 1852. This was dismantled in 1905. Walter Barton May died in 1858 and the estate was sold. Subsequent owners were Robert Rodger, JP,

High Sheriff of Kent The high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown (prior to 1974 the office previously known as sheriff)."Sheriffs appointed for a county or Greater London shall be known as high sheriffs, and any reference in any enactment or instru ...

, in 1865. He died in 1882 and his son, Willim Wallace Rodger-Cunliffe died in 1888. In 1900 the castle was sold to Benjamin Scott Foster MacGeagh, a retired trader and entrepreneur. MacGeagh became J.P. in Kent and its High Sheriff and died in 1907. The Castle, its estate and the manors of Hadlow and East Peckham then passed to his son, Dr. Thomas Edwin Foster MacGeagh, a Harley Street practitioner Dr. MacGeagh would drive in his carriage to Tonbridge and catch the train to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

thus being an early

commuter Commuting is periodically recurring travel between a place of residence and place of work or study, where the traveler, referred to as a commuter, leaves the boundary of their home community. By extension, it can sometimes be any regular o ...

. However, T.E.F. MacGeagh sold the estate in 1919 to Henry Thomas Pearson, whose farming family occupied it until 1946. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

it was used as a watchtower by the

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and

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. The unoccupied castle changed hands several times after the Pearsons left, and was demolished in 1951,Hadlow Castle except for the servants' quarters, several stables and the Coach House, which were saved by the painter Bernard Hailstone. The Tower was already a Listed Building, having been listed on 17 April 1951. Now the entrance gateway and lodges of the Castle still stand - a heavy Gothic presence on the street - as does the Stable Court with two turreted pavilions, which are all in private ownerships, and new homes have been built in the grounds.

Tower

Hadlow Tower, known locally as May's

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 ...

, is a

Victorian Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

tower, and one of the largest in Britain at . The top is an octagonal lantern. The

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

tower was badly damaged in the Great Storm of 1987, and the lantern was removed in 1996.Folly Towers
/ref> The tower's condition then worsened rapidly. The cost of repairs was estimated at £4 million. In July 2006,

Tonbridge and Malling borough council Tonbridge ( ) (historic spelling ''Tunbridge'') is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Mall ...

announced that it would issue a

compulsory purchase order A compulsory purchase order (CPO; , ) is a legal function in the United Kingdom and Ireland that allows certain bodies to obtain land or property without the consent of the owner. It may be enforced if a proposed development is considered one for ...

(CPO) on the tower in an effort to save it.Daily Telegraph, 24 July 2006
/ref> This CPO was confirmed in March 2008 by the

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport The secretary of state for culture, media and sport, also referred to as the culture secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for strategy and po ...

, with plans for the council to take possession of the Tower and transfer it to the Vivat Trust in late 2009, so that the necessary repair and restoration work can be undertaken; plans included short-term holiday accommodation, with a separate exhibition centre on part of the ground floor. In January 2011, it was announced that the tower had been compulsorily purchased by Tonbridge and Malling District Council; the council sold it to the Vivat Trust for £1. Restoration of the tower, including the replacement of the lantern commenced in February 2011, with completion then scheduled for September 2012. The project was funded by grants from

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, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

and the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. The latter granted £2,000,000 of the estimated £4,000,000 restoration cost. After restoration, the tower offered holiday accommodation, with public exhibition space on the ground floor. On 24 February 2011, Hadlow Castle was transferred to the Vivat Trust. The restoration was completed in February 2013, making it the tallest folly in the United Kingdom. In October 2013, the restoration of the tower was recognised when the Vivat Trust and the Save Hadlow Tower Action Group (SHTAG) won a Lloyd-Webber Angel Award. Work was completed on the interior; the exhibition centre in the tower was open on Thursdays from May to October. Visits are organised by SHTAG. In September 2014, it was shortlisted for the 2014 Kent Design Awards. Following the collapse of Vivat Trust, the tower was offered for sale in May 2016. In 2017 the tower was sold to a private individual for £425,000. The tower was re-listed for sale in 2020 with

Sotheby's International Realty Sotheby’s International Realty is a luxury real estate brand founded in 1976 by Sotheby's fine art dealers. Sotheby's International Realty operates as a franchise focusing on brokering and marketing of residential real estate. As of 2018, th ...

for £1,475,000.

References

Sources

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External links

Vivat Trust

Save Hadlow Tower Action Group
{{Hadlow Country houses in Kent Towers in Kent Hadlow Grade I listed buildings in Kent Grade I listed houses Houses completed in 1843 Former country houses in England Gothic Revival architecture in Kent British country houses destroyed in the 20th century Demolished buildings and structures in Kent Octagonal buildings in the United Kingdom 1843 establishments in England Buildings and structures demolished in 1951