For years it seemed inevitable that Clavell Tower's fate was to slip from its clifftop prominence and crash ignominiously into the sea below. Perched just four metres from the edge of Kimmeridge Bay in Dorset, the tower had stood abandoned for more than 80 years, with only passing walkers and sheep for company, while the cliff steadily eroded beside it. Despite its unassuming appearance, the tower had historical significance and was a grade II-listing. Built in 1831 as an observatory for a local clergyman, it was the inspiration for novelist PD James's thriller The Black Tower and the Thomas Hardy poem She to Him. For decades, boats at sea had used it as a landmark and walkers, as a place to rest. Even so, the tower's journey to oblivion seemed inexorable.
展开▼
