Vandalian Tower, West Sussex

Established in the 1770s, Vandalia was a short-lived British colony in northeast USA, approximately where West Virginia is today; it was never fully recognised, and the current state borders were established later that century. The founding of the colony was commemorated, in the UK, by construction, in 1774, of the Vandalian Tower, a brick-built folly on a hill in the Harting Downs, West Sussex, though this too did not endure very long, abandoned after a fire in 1842.

The stark remains are still fairly substantial, and photogenic, standing alone in the middle of a field, an elevated position with fine views, especially to the west. The site is easily visited, by a 0.3 mile walk across the field, starting from the National Trust car park for Harting Down, along the B2141, 6 miles south of Petersfield.

Vandalia was named in honour of the English Queen, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, wife of George III, in recognition of her descent from the ancient tribe of the Vandals. Another proposed US colony of this time was Charlotina, also named after the Queen; this would have occupied a large area of land west of the Great Lakes. The folly was built for Matthew Fetherstonhaugh, who owned the surrounding Uppark Estate, though he died before it was completed. The estate and its manor house are now owned by the National Trust.

The Tower

Vandalian Tower is square in outline, with hollow projecting buttresses at each corner. It originally had two floors, a kitchen with fireplace at ground level and a taller viewing room above, accessed via a ramp up the exterior. The tower was surrounded by a sunken fence, a ha-ha. The minor prominence on which the tower stands, elevation 680 feet, is known as Tower Hill, and this is half a mile northeast of the Uppark mansion.