Bath Preservation Trust has secured £100k partnership funding from Historic England, to help preserve Beckford’s Tower

Built between 1826 and 1827, the structure was intended to house the collections of books, furniture and art of writer and collector William Beckford (1760-1844). 

Having sold his Gothic Revival Fonthill Abbey in 1822, Beckford relocated to Bath and began the construction of his folly Tower. 

Now owned and run by the Trust, is a Grade I listed building and the only museum dedicated to Beckford’s life and work. 

This funding forms part of Our Tower: Reconnecting Beckford’s Tower and Landscape for all, a much larger £3.9m National Lottery Heritage Fundsupported project. 

This will ‘transform the museum, open up the landscape, provide accessible experiences and opportunities for volunteering and community engagement’. 

Beckford’s wealth was secured through owning plantations and exploiting enslaved people and the project will enable interpretation of Beckford’s story based on wider exploration of his connections with slavery.

Bath Preservation Trust campaigns for and promotes the conservation, sustainable enhancement and celebration of the City of Bath a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Historic England celebrates the country’s historic environment, ‘from beaches and battlefields to parks and pie shops’. 

 www.beckfordstower.org.uk, www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk and www.historicengland.org.uk 

*Source: Mary Stringer at mstringer@bptrust.org.uk