Perrott's Folly
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Perrott's Folly by John M as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Perrott's Folly
Image: © John M Taken: 20 Nov 2009
Thought to be the inspiration for an illustration of 'Orthanc' one of the 'Two Towers' in Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings'. Tolkien spent his teenage years in nearby Stirling Road and Duchess Place. Perrott's Folly, or Monument, was constructed in 1758 by John Perrott as a folly or hunting lodge. It was converted to a weather observatory by Follet Osler in 1884 and was later used by the Birmingham & Midland Institute and Birmingham University until 1979. (Although the 1979 date is widely quoted another geograph contributor who worked for the University remembers taking the weekly pay packets to the staff there into the early 1980s.) The other tower is at Edgbaston Waterworks and is thought to be Minas Tirith.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
52.474522
Longitude
-1.93135