Interview with Jack Fox – July 2014. (Born: 9th July 1926 . Died : 5th May 2016).
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Jack Fox was born and brought up in Littleworth. He went to the Church of England School for Boys on the Stanford Rd. His route to and from school was up and over Folly Hill - twice a day. It was his playground - both during the week, and especially at weekends.
What do you remember about the building of the tower?Like it was yesterday… the most exciting thing that happened to us when we were children… we used to go up there all the time… it was our backyard and our playground…
We used to help carry bricks … climb on the wooden scaffolding. We’d never seen anything so high. We all knew the estate bricklayers and they knew us. Mr Sergeant was in charge. There were six of them. We lived in Littleworth, so the tower was just up the road, and also on my way to and from school. D'you remember any celebrities, royalty, or special visitors?
Lots of Lord Berners friends… Come to think of it… one gentleman … regular visitor–often there at weekends… called him “the Prof” … saw him there a dozen times at least. Mr Sergeant got to know him quite well, because he was always asking questions. And we spoke to him a couple of times as well, with his pipe and his sketchbook. He was always smoking his pipe, and talking at the same time. Mumbling. Yes, he used to mumble.
And he had a favourite fallen down tree that he used to sit on. He said it was a sleeping dragon, and that he didn’t need matches, because he could light his pipe from the dragon’s breath. He drew a picture of a dragon for me on a piece of scrap paper. I think he must have been a bit obsessed by the tower. And he told us stories. I remember there was one about the White Horse and Dragon Hill, which you could see clearly from Folly Hill. Do you know where he lived?Nearby I think, because a couple of times we saw him head off down the footpath to Wadley Manor. But only at weekends. The prof and Lord Berners would spend ages chatting in the woodland. I also saw them at the top of the tower after the staircase was finished.
Can you remember what he looked like?Yes, absolutely. About same height as Lord Berners, but much thinner. We used to call them Laurel & Hardy, and we would do a dance behind them. There was a song called the cuckoo song I think - and we used to sing that. They pretended not to notice!
Did he come to the opening night and the fireworks? |
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Oh yes – I’m sure he did. Lord Berners would have invited him to the bonfire and fireworks night. He invited everyone who was interested in the tower. But I don’t think he would have gone back to the house afterwards. That was for the special guests.
Can you remember his name?
No – we just called him the prof. I think he quite liked that.
Have you heard of Tolkien, or Lord of the Rings?
The films you mean? Yes of course - but not my cup of tea I’m afraid …
Jack Fox remembering the Official Opening of the Folly Tower – Bonfire Night 5th Nov 1935
It was amazing. I must have been nine. You’ve never seen so many fireworks. My dad helped setting them up and setting them off, but I wasn’t allowed to help. The guests all walked up from Faringdon House, apparently there were more than a hundred, and then they all stood in the clearing by the tower when the fireworks exploded all around them, which must have been really crazy. I joined the Faringdon fire service in the 1960s, and there were still firemen who had also been there at the opening. They said it was a good thing we had the new fire engine already up there standing by, because otherwise the fireworks would have set light to the woodland. It also rained afterwards – which must have helped. Not a good idea to have fireworks in woodlands. But Lord Berners and Mr Heber-Percy managed to keep this out of the papers. Only the firemen knew, and they weren’t going to tell. Then there was the big bonfire, in the clearing. We watched the fireworks from Littleworth, but I’m sure you could see it from miles away.
Why are the Fireworks of Interest?
Jack Fox thinks that Tolkien did attend the Opening of the Tower. The event was covered with a full page of photos in the Tatler magazine, and the newspaper reports from 1935 tell us that five hundredweight of fireworks were set off, some from the top of the Tower itself. The hyperbolic descriptions of the lavish ‘flambeaux’ displays bear an uncanny resemblance to those used by Tolkien when describing Gandalf’s "unexpected party" firework display in the opening chapter of Lord of the Rings. The Folly Tower is the focus of the 1935 event; in LOTR, the Party Tree and the great pavilion serve the same symbolic role. The Party Tree (in the middle of the Party Field) is clearly visible on the slopes of Hobbiton Hill in Tolkien's painting. Coming up from Frogmore Brook and Wadley Manor - Tolkien would have come through that exact same "party field" when walking up Folly Hill. Was there a big ancient oak tree in the middle of that field in the mid-1930s? We don't know, but perhaps someone has a pre-1940s photo of Folly Hill from the South-East? The party field is still there - but no tree.
