Freston Tower, Tudor folly tower in Freston, Suffolk, England
Freston Tower is a six-story brick folly tower in Freston, Suffolk, England, standing on a slope overlooking the River Orwell. Each floor contains a single room, and the exterior is decorated with Gothic details such as battlements and pointed arches.
The tower was built around 1578 by Thomas Gooding, a merchant from Ipswich who had acquired the nearby Freston Manor. It is considered one of the earliest examples of a folly tower in England.
A local story claims that each floor of the tower was used for a different subject of study, from charity on the ground floor to astronomy at the top. Whether true or invented, this tale shows how people in the 16th century imagined a complete education.
The tower is managed by the Landmark Trust and can be rented as a holiday let, so the interior is not open for general visitors. The exterior can be seen from the surrounding footpaths, and the views toward the River Orwell from the area are easy to reach on foot.
In the 1770s the tower was briefly used as a site for smallpox inoculations, making it one of the more unexpected medical locations in Suffolk. This detail is easy to miss, yet it shows how the building served very different purposes over the centuries.
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