Beckford's Tower

 Luckily we had a good day today for delivering a ceramic plaque to Bath, usually Tim and I would go on the train, but concerns about Covid 19 meant we opted to go in the car. We parked at the Lansdown park and ride and walked into Bath, downhill all the way there, and a bit harder on the way back! Fortunately we'd left ourselves time to have a look at Beckford's Tower, at least from the outside. It's absolutely stunning, and I am looking forward to going inside when we can do so. This is what the website says:

 'Beckford's Tower is an extraordinary building that was once home to one of the greatest collections of books, furniture and art in Georgian England and now stands as the only surviving example of William Beckford’s great architectural achievements.

William Beckford’s ability to build, and to collect, was made possible by the wealth he inherited and continued to accumulate as an owner of Jamaican sugar plantations and enslaved people, and through the compensation he received from the government following the abolition of slavery. This aspect of his life is explored within our museum displays'.

William Beckford was the end of a longish line of Beckfords who first went out to Jamaica in 1661 and made a fortune owning slaves who worked on sugar plantations and other enterprises. William's father, Alderman Beckford, thought he'd settle in the UK, and bought the Fonthill Estate in Wiltshire where he began refurbishing the old house which was destroyed by fire. In 1760, aged 10, William Beckford inherited this estate, £20k from British estates and £50k per annum from plantations in the West Indies. William built Fonthill Abbey between 1796-1822, income from the plantations decreased, slavery was abolished in 1807, and in debt, William moved to Bath and built the tower in 1826-7, and lived in Royal Crescent.

With the mid winter sun shining this morning, some of the photos of the tower are stunning,

I like both these, the first from just inside the gate, and the next one from further into the cemetery

There's a very grand part of the cemetery where William Beckford is buried, a raised bit of ground where the structure holding the coffin is situated, is surrounded by stone walls, making it like an island

I was fascinated by the large gates, small gates and the carved archway over the entrance:

Isn't the pattern in the gates fantastic?

the patterns in the archway are wonderfully ornate.

In the corridor from the front gate, to the cemetery, there are carved gargoyles, here's one:

Beckford's Tower is clearly an absolute gem of a place, it's on the 'At Risk' register and has had some HLF funding, to find out more about funding 'Our Tower' as the project is called, please click here for more information on how the tower is being preserved for us all.