Standing guard over Tewkesbury Abbey, this grand building of about 1500 provides a captivating base from which to explore the interesting town of Tewkesbury, the Cotswolds and Cheltenham.

Deep in the woods sits this octagonal folly – with a real surprise inside. The ceiling and walls of the main room are festooned with shells, while in the basement is a cold plunge pool.

This very clever scale model of a French chateau sits on a hill above the River Trent in the middle of the Lincolnshire countryside.

Our restoration of Danescombe Mine was one of the earliest conversions of an industrial building into a house. The result is a wonderful exotic hybrid in a wooded valley leading to the Tamar.

The tower was built as a folly in 1821 with a pretty sitting room on the first floor. The third floor was added in 1943 by the Germans as an observation point, with views in every direction.

This is a self-contained flat in the former residence of the Union’s Steward, an important figure in the famous debating society, the Oxford Union, formed in 1823 to encourage free speech.

This simple and evocative cottage, from around 1840, was built to serve one of the monumental pumping engines that sprang up as the Steam Age took on the challenge of draining the Fenland.

Whiteford Temple is an ornamental granite folly with views towards the Tamar Estuary. It was built in the 18th century for Sir John Call, a military engineer who had made a fortune in India.

45a Cloth Fair is a fine Georgian house close to Smithfield Market.  It is an oasis of relative calm in central London.

This simple granite house shares its spectacular Cornish clifftop setting with The Farmhouse. Lower Porthmeor is typical of the farm hamlets that dot this green coastal shelf west of St Ives.

Built for John Lanvin in about 1835, the colourful front elevation is heavily decorated with flamboyant lotus-bud capitals. This second floor apartment is one of three.

This third floor apartment has amazing views, through the chimney pots of the town, of Mounts Bay and St. Michael’s Mount.

Freston Tower is a six-storey Tudor folly that looks out over the River Orwell. There is a single room on each floor with the sitting room at the top to take advantage of the unrivalled views.

The House of Correction, built in 1611, sits on the site of a medieval castle. A small prison such as this was intended to house minor offenders, today, only the grand entrance survives.

Villa dei Vescovi is a Renaissance villa nestled in the vineyards and orchards of the Euganean Hills. One of two rooftop apartments, with views of the elegant orchards.