Northampton's Boughton Park book reprinted to mark 300th anniversary of its creator's birth

Ever wondered what that odd church-like structure is at you travel along the A508? Or wanted to know why there is an obelisk in the middle of the houses on Obelisk Rise? For the answers to these questions, and many more, you really need to read Simon Scott’s recently reprinted book called The Follies of Boughton Park Revisited.

Simon Scott’s fascinating, long out-of-print, book has been reprinted as a Limited Edition to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the birth of the person responsible for the historic landscape and almost all the associated follies – William Wentworth, Earl Strafford.

Located just north of Northampton, Boughton Park contains Northamptonshire’s largest collection of eighteenth-century follies and other landscape structures – yet the history of this nationally important historic landscape was never properly documented until the publication of Simon’s book, The Follies of Boughton Park, in 1995. A new edition, titled The Follies of Boughton Park Revisited was published in 2011, much expanded from the original, and has now been reprinted.

Boughton Park reflected the ideas of its age - influenced by such famous names as Horace Walpole, Alexander Pope and Sanderson Miller. This definitive book contains original detailed research into the fascinating follies and the family responsible for the unique Gothick parkland located between the villages of Boughton, Pitsford and Moulton.

Researches for the book identified Boughton Park as being of such historic interest as to merit inclusion in the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens. All the follies are also listed. Today, this important part of the county’s heritage is under threat from both new bypass roads and housing developments. Their future survival rests in the hands of West Northamptonshire Council, making this reprint most timely.

Chapters in the 88-page hardback book include: The Earls of Strafford; Horace Walpole and other influences; Boughton Hall; Boughton Park; The Hawking Tower; The Grotto; The Obelisk; The Spectacle; New Park Barn; Other landscape structures; The Church of St John the Baptist; Holly Lodge; and The battles of Boughton Park, followed by a comprehensive Notes and References section. Illustrated throughout with specially commissioned maps and reproductions of antique images, as well as contemporary photographs.

See www.simonscott.org.uk/boughtonpark for more details and how to order.