The Lord of the Manor’s Folly

The Folly is also a stop on our Bromley Town Centre Park Trail, see here.

This Folly is one of the ‘installations’ added by James Pulham & Sons, as part of the gardens for the Old Bishops Palace. The rights and titles of the Lord of the Manor of Bromley had recently been acquired by a coal merchant from Deptford, a Mr Charles Coles Esq., who had made his money supplying steam coal to the railways, shipping it down from the coal mines near Newcastle. It was very fashionable to have a Folly in your park or estate, and this one was placed next to the entrance, so anyone coming in from the south would not miss it.

The Folly might have been inspired by the medieval arch and pillar found when dredging the Moat. These were originally incorporated, (see the 1940s photo) but the pillar has gone missing since then. However, the Folly had been a long-standing fashion since Capability Brown had been designing landscapes around wealthy homes. There’s many fine ones to be seen on hills up and down the country.

The folly is decorated with a figure in a shield, thought to be St Blaise, whose well is at stop 1 of the Bromley Town Centre trail. St Blaise was a popular saint in Bromley and Kent, as he is associated with wool combing. His saints day is the 3rd February.

Unfortunately, when Historic England required the council to remove the very overgrown ivy from the Folly, the head of the saint was lost.

Shortly after James Pulham & Son built this Folly, they constructed another at Sydenham Hill Wood. This is thought of as the ‘twin’ to our Folly, it looks very similar, and under the undergrowth there are scattered rocks around our Folly, artfully strewn, in the same style.

The page of all the historic features in the Bromley Palace Park is here.