Belle Vue Tower, Briningham

A small stone folly tower on the highest point of Briningham parish, two miles west of Briston, Belle Vue is an unexpected piece of Regency-era estate architecture. It is on private land but visible from the road and from various footpaths around it.

The hill it stands on is itself the high point of the immediate area, and walking the lanes between Briningham, Brinton, and Sharrington gives a fine sense of the gentle but real topography of inland Norfolk — quite different from the much-photographed flat marshlands of the coast.

things to do sight architecture
A story
Belle Vue Tower is a folly: a square Gothic-revival watchtower thrown up in the 1820s by Lord Hastings of Melton Constable so the family could climb it after dinner and look out over their land. From the top, on a clear day, you can see thirty miles in all directions — the spire of Norwich cathedral to the south-east and, supposedly, the masts of ships off Cromer.