• About this humble little website

Football: Wherever it may be

~ Laurence's football travels

Football: Wherever it may be

Tag Archives: Four and twenty blackbirds

Flight of Fancy

05 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by laurencereade in F

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

aldous huxley, and Elsa Schiaparelli, architecture, arts, Diana Mosley, Edith Sitwell, Faringdon Folly, Four and twenty blackbirds, George III, Gertrude Stein, Henry James Pye, HG Wells, Igor Stravinsky, John & Penelope Betjeman, Lord Berners, Nancy Mitford, Salvador Dali, Sergei Diaghilev

Sunday 4th August 2013

Faringdon Folly

Entry £2

If you drive along the A420 from Oxford to Swindon, you’ll spot a hill on your right just before Faringdon.  Its not the largest hill you’ll ever see, or the most prepossessing, but the turret that pokes out of the top of the Scots Pines gives a clue as to its interest.

The hill’s history massively pre-dates the turret, as it was fortified by supporters of Matilda sometime during the Anarchy (1135–1141) – her campaign to claim the throne from King Stephen – but was soon razed to the ground by once he’d won the war. Oliver Cromwell fortified it again in his unsuccessful campaign to defeat the Royalist garrison at Faringdon House, during the English Civil War.

It wasn’t until 1935 that the turret, or tower if you’d prefer was built, and that dear reader is where the fun really starts! Continue reading →

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 6,297 other followers

Look for stuff here folks!

Blogroll

  • Damage In The Box Chris Powell’s travels across the UK and Europe. The artist must frequently seen in the pub 0
  • FA Cup Factfile Phil Annets on all things to do with the World’s greatest cup competition 10
  • Football Club History Database Want to know where a club finished in what league and in what year? Richard Rundle’s site is a veritable goldmine! 0
  • Football Hopper “Fast” Eddie McGeown’s erudite perambulations around the nation’s football grounds 0
  • Gibbo's 92 As Atherton Colleries’ programme editor puts it, ” The best trips are random, unplanned and spontaneous.” 0
  • Groundhopping.se Per-Gunnar Nilsson’s trips around his native Sweden, and into Europe 0
  • Grounds for concern The late Mishi Morath’s picture blog. Obviously no longer updated but still a wonderful archive. 0
  • Kate Shrewsday. A thousand thousand stories Not about football, but beautiful writing, Kate can make words dance. 0
  • Modus Hopper Random Graham Yapp’s travels 0
  • The 100 Grounds Club Shaun Smith’s groundhopping football blog. The original internet ground logging website. 0
  • The Football Traveller The bible for every groundhopper. Non-League fixtures magazine delivered weekly. Published and edited by Chris Bedford 0
  • The Intinerant Football Watcher Peter finds the grounds other hoppers cannot reach. Top bloke too! 0
  • The66POW Rob Waite’s travels 0

Your very own calendar!

August 2022
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Jul    

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Football: Wherever it may be
    • Join 6,297 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Football: Wherever it may be
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar