A Folly on a Farm? - Answered

Folly 

/ˈfɒli/

noun: folly; plural noun: follies

1. lack of good sense; foolishness. "an act of sheer folly"

2. a costly ornamental building with no practical purpose, especially a tower or mock-Gothic ruin built in a large garden or park.

3. a theatrical revue with glamorous female performers. "the Ziegfeld Follies"

Origin

Middle English: from Old French folie ‘madness’, in modern French also ‘delight, favourite dwelling’ (compare with folly (sense 2)), from fol ‘fool, foolish’.


I travel a lot in my work, perks of being a lorry driver.

I see many sights, some good, some bad and some, are a mystery.

One is Stonehenge (you can see it from the A303), hardly a Folly, but a mystery and even with lots of research and documented history, is still not fully understood.

The one I'm interested in is on a Farm, next to a busy link road to a Motorway several miles to the North West. Well, more specifically in a field.



Now most Follies are large buildings that serve no real purpose, or a long forgotten purpose, some, like the recently destroyed Twisted Brick Arch Demolished in 2015 are done during times of poverty as a display of workmanship.



There's a long history of follies and I'm sure this one doesn't come up in a recognised list. 

But I like to think of it as a Mason's Folly, that served a purpose as a fancy trough, that has long since been decommissioned.

SV or GE is fine by me but there is no large red arrow in the field to aid you.

A couple of things about the French word folie, for anyone who cares :

First, it still means "madness" in modern French. I have often seen etymology of English words saying an English word comes from "old French" when it's still a perfectly modern word. Strange. In many cases the English sense was the same as the modern sense used in english.

Second, yes, the building called "folly" is also "folie" in French, and there is every reason to think the English used the word folly because of that French use of the word. In French, we use that word to mean doing something extravagant, like buying something expensive and usually unnecessary. "Tu as fait une folie! Tu n'aurais pas dû !", when happily receiving an expensive gift for example (You did a "folly", you shouldn't have!"). So, when rich people especially in the 19th century started bulding expensive looking pleasure palaces in the country or by the sea, usually uninhabited for most of the year, they were called "folies". And so were the smaller follies built in the park around your main house. Un "coup de folie" is a whim, a moment of madness.

So there you have it.

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{Clue}A303, Folly, Farm, Motorway to the NW.

Thanks for the clue, but even then ....

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thanks for the clue!

This reminded me of the days before GPS or Satnav when we used to give people actual directions. Half the guests always got lost. 😄 "It's near the field, after the crossroads, you can't miss it!" 😁

Motorway to the NW did not help as there are motorways in all directions such as to the SE 

Well done to those that persisted in my Folly.

SPOILER: Click to show

It's in a Field along A358 which runs North West to the M5 from the A303. Nearby are Folly Stud Farm and a Lane called Folly Drove.

Google Maps

Street View

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{Spoiler}
Interestingly, there's another Folly Farm not far from Bath and Bristol, so from Stonehenge it's to the NW. Also the "motorway to the NW" you were referring to actually goes in a NE direction. I was confused by all that. 😁 I finally followed the road west until it ended and went NW towards the closest Motorway and then found the Folly. Directions are so subjective. 😊