folly in the morning light

Booker's Tower, Guildford

Howard Somerville, , Nouchetdu38 have particularly liked this photo

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Isisbridge ^club

The eight-sided tower, built of Bargate Stone, was the creation of Mr Charles Booker,
a corn merchant and miller by trade, having his business at the Town Mill in Millbrook.

Mr Booker lived in Quarry Street and is included among the town's nobility, gentry and clergy in Pigot's Directory of Surrey for 1839. He was three times Mayor of Guildford, in 1814, 1823 and 1831, and Borough Justice of the Peace. His name appears on the Mayoral Boards at the Town Hall. His father, also Charles Booker, was Mayor of Guildford in 1807, and the county records show that there was yet another Charles Booker, who was Mayor in 1798.

Booker's Tower, rising to almost seventy feet, was built on the high ground at the eastern end of the Hog's Back, for the most heart-wrenching reasons: "to perpetuate his name after fate had robbed him of his two sons".

Both sons died at the age of fifteen - Charles Collyer Booker succumbed to small pox in December 1824, and Henry Booker was drowned after falling into the River Wey near the town wharf. The deaths are recorded on a tomb in Holy Trinity churchyard. It was after this that Mr Booker approached Dr James Stedman and leased a forty-square-foot corner of Cradle Field, as it was then known, and erected his tower. He commissioned Mr John Mason as his builder, though it is unclear whether he was also its architect.

The tower was completed in 1839 and Mr Booker died on May 13th 1849, at the age of 71. His wife, Harriet, outlived him and died in 1870. Before his death, however, he had the satisfaction of opening the tower in honour of Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert, and by all accounts, it was a highly ceremonial affair, as the tower was illuminated and a salute fired from the top. Mr John Mason, the very same builder, writing in his book Guildford 1897 highlights the "ringing of bells, display of bunting and fireworks, firing of cannon... and willingly do I testify to the abundant hospitality upon the occasion".

Mr Booker entertained friends in the tower, from where, seventy feet up and with magnificent views over the developing town and beyond, they would observe the construction of the Woking Railway. In 1865, his wife, Harriet, presented a clock, which is in St Mary's Church.

Early photographs of Booker's Tower show that the top had battlements, which have since disappeared. In 1928, it was planned to demolish the tower, but it would seem that public outcry stopped this happening. The Union Flag was always hoisted on public and family occasions, which, according to John Mason, was "a very dangerous operation". With the line decayed, the pole had to be lifted out whilst standing on planks placed across the parapet, and then dropped back again into the socket. When wind or rain or snow opposed, some nerve was necessary.

Following Mr Booker's death, Mr J Rand Capron from a neighbouring observatory used this tower to assist in scientific experiments. Here a "corona of platinum" points was fixed on a staff on the tower top to gather atmosheric electricity. Wires from the 'points' ended in the Observatory and were tested daily by means of electrometers etc. to ascertain strength, as well as kind (positive or negative) of electrical charges in the air.

Today, Cradle Fields is the site of Guildford Cemetery, and together with Booker's Tower, occupies one of the most delightful locations in the county. The cemetery contains the grave of the mathematician, Revd Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), better known as Lewis Carroll, author of Alice Through the Looking Glass, who lived in Guildford. During the Second World War, it was used as a lookout point for spotting enemy aircraft.

Its owners, Guildford Borough Council, restored the tower in 1985, after it appears to have been used as a cemetery attendant's shed. Public access is possible via Guildown.

Local legend prevails that the people named the tower Booker's Folly. Mr Booker, possibly summing up the feelings of all folly builders, simply retorted that a man had the right to do as he pleased with his own. Gerry Tebbutt, June 2007

The tower fell into a state of disrepair, with the staircase crumbled and no longer accessible, but after restoration was used for a while by CB radio enthusiasts.

5 years ago. Edited 5 years ago.

Howard Somerville ^club

Nice lighting.

13 months ago.

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