The
village of Thorpeness, north of Aldeburgh, is unusual in that it was built
in its entirety as a speculative development holiday centre. The old fishing
hamlet of Thorpe was acquired by G. Stuart Ogilvie, landowner, playwright
and barrister, who proceeded to build what his copywriters variously described
as 'the ideal holiday village' and 'the Home of Peter Pan'. One problem was
how to supply expected amenities such as mains water in the Home of Peter
Pan without disfiguring the landscape with an obtrusive water tower. The answer
came with the removal of a windmill from Aldringham, the next village, to
replace the American 'New Mill' which pumped water into as rusty iron tank
beside it. A system of lakes and waterways called The Meare complete with
a miniature sham fort had been designed by Ogilvie in 1910, but the war intervened
and it was not until 1923 that he installed the 'new' old post-mill and cast
around for a suitable means of disguising the necessary water tank. Now Ogilvie
was very fond of dove-cotes, and had already disguised his own water tower
at Sizewell Court a mile up the coast as a dove-cote in 1908, using the bottom
part as a carpenter's workshop. What more natural then than to use the same
pleasurable idea at Thorpeness, but on a very much larger scale? So The Gazebo
was built, a five story house underneath the brilliantly disguised 30,000
gallon water tank: the tank was disguised as an everyday clapboarded house
with pitched roof, chimneys and sham windows, perched incongruously on top
of a sixty foot tower. "Who on earth would want to live in it with all the
water rushing up and down?" was the major objection to the scheme, but Ogilvie
had no difficulty finding tenants. Mr. & Mrs. Malcolm Mason moved in,
and Mrs. Mason loved it. She wrote poems for children, and one, inspired by
her house, was called "The House in the Clouds":- "The fairies
really own this house - or so the children say -
In fact, they all of them moved in upon the self same day ..."
When she recited
this to Ogilvie one evening at dinner he was enchanted, and exclaimed "The
name must be changed to The House in the Clouds - and you are my Lady of
the Stairs and Starlight!". So The House in the Clouds it became, and the
choice of name, like the Tattingstone Wonder, has helped make this one of
the most famous follies in the country. The success of Thorpeness meant
that yet more water was needed, so a 40,000 gallon tank was built in 1929.
This was camouflaged as a large, square, faintly Norman tower over an arch
in a parade of mock Tudor houses. Thorpeness is now on mains water, and
the huge tank in the House in the Clouds has been dismantled. A recent owner
put a bathroom in on each floor, overspent, and when we last visited this
unique house it was once again on the market.
From the original draft of Follies by Gwyn Headley & Wim Meulenkamp, published by Jonathan Cape in 1986 and 1990, now out of print.
The new, expanded, fully revised and rewritten FOLLIES, GROTTOES AND GARDEN BUILDINGS by Gwyn Headley and Wim Meulenkamp, with photos on nearly every one of its 600 pages, is available from GREAT bookshops at £20 (ISBN 1-85410-625-2, published by Aurum Press, July 15 1999). Signed copies are available direct from the authors. Send a UK cheque for £23 (inc. p&p, UK only) made payable to "Gwyn Headley" to:
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