Clavell Tower
Award Winning
Award Winning
Location: Kimmeridge, Wareham, Dorset
Client: Landmark Trust
Architect: Landmark Trust
Value: £0.9M
Awards:
2009 RICS Awards – South West Regional Conservation Award and National Conservation Award
Clavell Tower is a Grade II listed circular observatory and folly built in 1830 above the cliffs of Kimmeridge Bay.
Standing 11 metres high, the tower occupies a dramatic but vulnerable coastal position on an actively eroding shale headland. By the late 20th century, shoreline recession had brought the structure into immediate danger. The project was commissioned to secure the long-term future of this landmark building while preserving its architectural character and historic significance.
The principal challenge was the severe and ongoing coastal erosion threatening the tower’s foundations, with the cliff edge only a short distance away. The site’s location within a highly sensitive landscape, including protected environmental and heritage designations, added significant constraints. The structure itself was fragile and partially deteriorated, requiring a strategy that would protect its historic fabric. Any intervention also needed to manage complex logistical, structural and reconstruction risks in an exposed coastal setting.
Completed in 2008, the project successfully secured the future of Clavell Tower by moving it away from the advancing cliff edge while preserving its historic form and character.
The meticulous dismantling and reconstruction process retained the integrity of the original structure and allowed the tower to remain a prominent landmark within the coastal landscape. The scheme is widely recognised as an exemplary heritage engineering project, combining conservation, structural design and landscape sensitivity in a highly challenging setting.
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