London auction to help rescue Clavell Tower

From the Echo, first published Thursday 2nd Oct 2003.

A DORSET landmark is set to be the focus of a London auction.

Clavell Tower, a listed building standing above Kimmeridge Bay, is likely to crumble into the sea unless funds can be raised to save it.

Building preservation charity the Landmark Trust is hosting an auction evening at Christie's in London with acclaimed crime writers P D James and Ruth Rendell as guest speakers.

The featured lot is a signed first edition and pages from the original manuscript of PD James' The Black Tower, a novel inspired by Clavell Tower.

The tower also prompted Thomas Hardy's Wessex Poems and he often took his first love, Eliza Nicholl, there.

P D James said: "This is a most elegant and important tower.

"It has been an inspiration to so many people and is greatly loved. It will be a great pity if we cannot save it."

Clavell Tower, also known as the Tower of the Winds, was built in 1830 by the Reverend John Richards Clavell of Smedmore as an observatory and folly.

It has stood as a focal point on the coastline for almost 200 years but is now only a few feet from the edge of the cliff which is suffering from erosion by the weather and sea.

It is thought that more than £500,000 might be needed to secure its future by moving it inland.

Director of the Landmark Trust Peter Pearce said: "Those joining us for the evening reception and auction will be helping to secure the future of this highly individual building.

"It would be a real and tragic loss if it were to crumble into the sea."

The auction is taking place on Monday, November 3 from 6pm to 8.30pm.

Tickets cost £25 and are available by calling 01628 825920.

Donations towards the rescue of Clavell Tower can be made by calling the trust on the same number.

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