To the untrained eye it looks like a remarkably well-preserved castle tower, situated on a particularly picturesque rise in the landscape - but upon closer inspection it becomes clear that Broadway Tower is nothing more than a fairy tale fantasy.
Designed by architect James Wyatt and landscape and garden designer Capability Brown in 1794, the picturesque miniature tower was intended to resemble a Saxon castle to please the tastes of Lady Coventry, who wanted to determine if a beacon light lit at this site could be seen from her home 22 miles away.
Early in the 19th century the tower was used by the book collector Sir Thomas Phillipps to house a printing press. Appropriate to its romantic setting, it was later reserved as a pre-Rafaelite artist's retreat by the painters William Morris, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones.
WWII transformed the garden folly into a strategic outlook when the Royal Observer Corps used it as a look out point to track enemy planes over England.
Today the tower stands as a lovely example of the 18th and 19th century mania for follies, artificial ruins and romantic garden structures. The tower is now popular with local hikers, and houses exhibits related to the tower's history including a William Morris room. The view from the top of the tower is said to take in a 62 mile radius of the local landscape.
