A Building Conundrum: Birmingham's Perrott's Folly

One of Birmingham's most unusual scheduled monuments is Perrott's Folly in Edgbaston. [SP047862] Just off the Hagley Road, at the junction of the eponymous Monument Road and Waterworks Road, the six storey Perrott's Folly still towers over the relatively leafy local suburbs.

It was built in 1758 by John Perrott, of Belbroughton in Worcestershire, in the remains of a medieval hunting park - ‘parc de Rotton' - with the area still bearing that historical appellation in its modern name of Rotton Park. The monument is a red-brick tower, rising to six storeys from its octagonal base, with a stair turret linking the single rooms on each floor. The first four floors have sky-pointed windows, the fifth has a distinctive oculus shape, and the sixth floor has a blind Gothic arcade with undersized, rectangular windows. The tower is crowned by a stone cornice and balustrades. The interior decoration is plain except for the excitement and exuberance of the sixth floor where there is an elaborate Gothic plaster frieze, reminiscent of the near-contemporary Strawberry Hill or indeed Arbury Hall at Nuneaton...