...Vobes Special Features...

Mad Jack's Follies

John Fuller built a number of interesting follies while we lived at Brightling in East Sussex, including the Sugar Loaf, the Brightling Needle and the Watch Tower, to name but a few.

Fiona Louise Sayers and my self went for a walk around the Rose Hill Estate to find them.

The Sugar Loaf
The Sugar Loaf, the result of a bet between the Vicar or Dallington and John Fuller.
The Summer House
The Summer House made with moulded Coadestone.
The Watch Tower
The Watch Tower, so called so that John Fuller could watch the restoration of nearby Bodium Castle

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Photos...

Many people first hear about John "Mad Jack" Fuller in association with the follies he built in and around Brightling, Sussex, England. These structures stand monument to his burning desire to be remembered long after his death. But this is not the most important legacy he created. He was a philanthropist, a patron of the arts and sciences and a founding member of the Royal Institution. Jack Fuller is immortalized in the lasting gifts he bestowed upon the community: the Fullerian Professorships, the Eastbourne Lifeboat, the barrel organ & bells at St Thomas a Becket Church and Bodiam Castle which he bought to save from demolition. The Fullers of Sussex were wealthy ironmasters and owned vast amounts of property, including sugar plantations in Jamaica. Fuller, being a Squire, a Member of Parliament , and a captain in the Sussex Yeomanry Cavalry was well connected and is associated with many notable figures of his day.

  • Relevant Sites

    John Fuller

    Fuller was born on February 20, 1757 in North Stoneham, Hampshire. He was christened in the village of Waldron, near Heathfield in Sussex (now East Sussex).. His parents were the Reverend Henry Fuller (January 15, 1713 - July 23, 1761) and his wife Frances, nč£ Fuller (1725 - February 14, 1778). Fuller had two sisters: Elizabeth who married Sir John Palmer Acland and Frances who married Lancelot Brown, son of famed landscape gardener Capability Brown.

    About John Fuller...

    Folly Towers

    John Fuller is not a charismatic, easily remembered name, but his nickname of 'Mad Jack Fuller' certainly is. Mad Jack was a true 'English eccentric', who lived all of his 77 years to the full it seems, portrayed as a 'bon viveur' and philanthropist, of which he was both, it appears he also had a darker side. Mad Jack is shown in portraits as being a large man, and this with his obvious eccentricity, probably presented an intimidating picture to those who met him. He was never married or known to have fathered any children (anyone who is married and has children may wonder if the man really was eccentric then !)

    Folly Towers ...

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