Broadway Tower

Capability Brown suggested the site and James Wyatt designed the tower, built in 1798 for the Earl of Coventry after his wife wondered whether a beacon on the hill could be seen from their house near Worcester, twenty-two miles away; it could, and the tower followed. It stands at 312 metres on the second-highest point of the Cotswolds, and on clear days sixteen counties are claimed from the roof. William Morris took it as a holiday retreat in the 1870s, and it was partly the state of the local churches seen from there that pushed him to found the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. In the field beside it is a Royal Observer Corps underground monitoring post, built in 1961 to report nuclear bursts and fallout, manned until 1991 and now restored and open.

What you actually see

• The Wyatt folly - a 1798 sham castle built to settle a question about a beacon.
• The escarpment view - sixteen counties claimed on a clear day.
• The Morris connection - the retreat that prompted the founding of the SPAB.
• The nuclear bunker - a 1961 Royal Observer Corps post, restored underground.

When to go

April to October for clear views and full opening; winter hours are shorter and the hilltop is very exposed. Early morning gives the best chance of long visibility.

Honest expectations

The tower is small inside, with steep stairs to a roof platform that holds few people at once. The sixteen-county claim depends on exceptional visibility, which is rare. The walk up from Broadway is a steady 150-metre climb.

Nearby

Broadway village is below; Chipping Campden and Snowshill lie along the escarpment.