Broadway Tower, Folly tower in Broadway, England
Broadway Tower is a 65-foot (20 m) limestone ashlar tower on Broadway Hill, hexagonal in plan with three round corner turrets, battlements and gargoyles. Two turrets hold spiral staircases from ground to roof; the top three of its four storeys house a museum, and the rooftop platform looks out over the Cotswolds.
Architect James Wyatt designed the building in 1794 for the 6th Earl of Coventry as part of a landscaping project on a hilltop used for centuries as a beacon site. Construction was completed between 1798 and 1799.
Cormell Price, headmaster of the United Services College at Westward Ho!, leased the tower in 1866 as a holiday home for himself and his friends. His circle included William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti; in 1876 Morris wrote to Aglaia Coronio that he was "today at Crom Price's Tower among the winds and the clouds".
Walking paths lead up to the site from Broadway village, and parking is available along the nearby A44 at Fish Hill. Visiting includes climbing through the exhibition floors to the open platform, where wind can be strong.
A restored Royal Observer Corps nuclear bunker from the Cold War period lies nearby and can be visited. The bunker was used until 1991 to monitor nuclear threats and now displays original equipment from that era.
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