This small flint tower stands on the very edge of the garden of Belmont Park (the house was remodelled by Samuel Wyatt in 1792), approached by an avenue of walnut trees. On its other side is a mature park and a cricket pitch. It was built in about 1808 for General, later Lord, Harris of Seringapatam. He called it his ‘Whim’, and one suspects that the pleasant upper room, at least, was his own den, into which the family were sometimes allowed for tea.

The General bought Belmont, which owed its name to its ‘high situation and extensive prospect’, in 1801, with prize money won in India. Farming and gardening were his chief enthusiasms and he soon doubled the size of the pleasure grounds to include the land in which the tower still stands.

The enthusiasm of the 4th Lord Harris was of a different kind. He was one of the fathers of cricket, and it was he who created a pitch in about 1870 and commandeered this tower as a changing room: hooks for the gear still decorate the walls. There are only two rooms in the tower for living and sleeping, but the prospect from its windows is still extensive; and you can dream of all those centuries, hoped for and, sometimes, achieved.

View our history sheet for this Landmark

Sleeps: 2