Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Location

Full description

Thorpe Tower.

July 1975. Field Observation.
Visited by E. Rose (NAU).
Brick and flint tower with vice crowned by turret also bay windows and oriel-turrets. It echoes the tower of 'Pinebanks', the house in whose grounds it stands. Inscription states "HM Queen Kapiolani ascended this tower 6 June 1887" and below "Quis enim"; on next side "Omne tulit punctuam qui miscuit utile dulci".
Pevsner (S1) dates house as 1880 and tower as c.1850, but I can see no reason for dating tower earlier than house. Faden's map of 1797 (S2) marks 'Thorpe Gazebo' near here, but nothing of this survives. Nothing here on tithe map (S3). Tower now bricked up and derelict inside.
Pevsner mentions another Gothic folly here - not seen.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU), 26 July 1975. information from record card (S4).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 23 May 2022.

See (S5), quotation on inscription is from Horace.
E. Rose (NAU). Information from record card (S4).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 23 May 2022.

Is this listed? It is not on 1984 list, but neither is it mentioned there as removed from list.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU). Information from record card (S4).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 23 May 2022.

A careful examination of (S2) suggests that Thorpe Gazebo was nearer NHER 4652 than here.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU), 18 August 2000.

Photograph (S6) in file.
E. Rose (NLA), 21 December 2005.

May 2006. Listed, Grade II.
Listing Description excerpt:
"Folly tower, circa 1880. Built of random knapped flint with red brick and limestone dressings. The roof is concealed behind a vertically-channelled brick parapet set on corbels. Square on plan with a central polygonal stair turret rising from a square base forming a porch on the east elevation. Stone broaches at the transition stage. The turret is lit by irregularly-spaced loops. The main tower is in five stages with the stair rising higher in two shorter stages to give access to the roof and terminating in a red brick belvedere with a castellated roof parapet and a corbelled base-course…
Above the west doorway (in the base of the stair turret) is a stone ribbon bearing the inscription 'Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci' ('He has gained every point who has combined the useful and the agreeable'), from Horace, Ars Poetica l.343. At ground floor level on the north side is a Gothic aedicule set on two short shafts with foliate capitals all on a projecting angled plinth. In the canopy is set a shield with the incised inscription 'HM Queen Kapiolani ascended this tower 6 June 1887'. Kapiolani, the Dowager Queen of Hawaii, was touring England on the occasion of the Jubilee of Queen Victoria.
A prominent landmark at the top of the scarp slope above the River Wensum. Comparatively late for a folly tower, this a good example of an eclectic High-Victorian garden building."
Information from (S7).
Please consult the National Heritage List for England (S7) for the current listing details.
E. Rose (NLA), 1 June 2006. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 23 May 2022.

April 2012.
Site visited by C. Kolonko (HES), 13 April 2012.

Monument Types

• FOLLY (19th Century - 1880 AD? to 1900 AD)
• GARDEN HOUSE (19th Century - 1880 AD? to 1900 AD)
• PROSPECT TOWER (19th Century to 21st Century - 1880 AD? to 2100 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status

• Listed Building

Sources and further reading

Related records - none

Find out more...

• Parish Summary: Thorpe St Andrew (Parish Summary)