Listing Text

SS 2006-2106 BUDE-STRATTON BUDE

11/162 The Storm Tower
-

- II

Small tower said to have been built as refuge for coastguard but also ornamental.
1835, designed by George Wightwick for Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 10th Baronet.
Roughly-dressed stone brought to course with freestone quoins. Octagonal tower
described by Wightwick as "after the Temple of the Winds at Athens". Tower stands
on plinth with 3 granite steps up to entrance on east side. Entrance has
entablature and pediment on freestone pilasters. Each side has slit window with
stone sill, those to north-east and north-west blocked. The points of the compass
are carved as a frieze in sans-serif below the moulded cornice. Low pyramidal
roof with moulded base to cross formerly surmounting tower. Interior has slate
floor and brick dressings to slit windows. Sir Thomas Dyke Acland owned
Ebbingford Manor (q.v.) in Bude and regularly stayed at Efford Cottage on the
Breakwater. Sir Thomas Acland played a large part in the C19 development of Bude
and the Bude Canal was partly built on Acland land. George Wightwick of Plymouth
was John Foulston's partner and succeeded to Foulston's architectural practice.
He designed a number of buildings in Bude for Sir Thomas Acland including the
chapel of St Michael and All Angels (q.v.), East and West Cottages and a
Preventative Service House on the Breakwater. Alan Pearson "George Wightwick",
Old Cornwall, vol.IX, No. 7, Autumn 1982, pp.338-351; vol.IX no. 8, Spring 1983,
pp.402-414. A photograph of the Storm Tower with its cross intact appears in
Rennie Bere and Brian Dudley Stamp, The Book of Stratton and Bude (1980) p.107.

Listing NGR: SS2004606343