'''Volta Tower''' was a folly in the town of Finedon, Northamptonshire, England. It was built in 1865 and collapsed in 1951.
==History== <!-- Deleted image removed: right|thumb|300 px --> The Volta Tower was built in 1865 by William Harcourt Isham Mackworth-Dolben of Finedon Hall. William Mackworth (1806—72), a younger son of Sir Digby Mackworth, the 3rd Baronet, had taken the additional surname Dolben after he married Frances, the heiress of Sir John English Dolben, the 4th Baronet.
Mackworth-Dolben built the tower to commemorate the death of his eldest son, Lieutenant Commander William Digby Dolben, who had drowned off the west coast of Africa on 1 September 1863, aged 24. William, serving on HMS ''Investigator'', drowned crossing the bar of Lagos<ref>''Stamford Mercury'' 23 October 1863 page 4</ref> when the gig, a four-oar whaler was swamped.<ref>[http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=NZH18640305.2.14 "The Accident off Lagos"] ''New Zealand Herald'', Volume I, Issue 97, 5 March 1864, Page 3</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/AngloAfricanLagos ''Anglo-African'' 3 September 1863]</ref> His younger brother, the poet Digby Mackworth Dolben, drowned aged nineteen in 1867.
The tower was circular and about {{convert|100|ft|m}} high. A gabled extension of one of the two floors had been added in keeping. The tower stood off Station Road in Finedon with a long driveway in front. Finedon's cemetery was built alongside in 1892.
===Collapse=== Volta Tower collapsed on 16 November 1951 after standing for 86 years. At the time, John Edgar {{Not a typo|Northen}} and his wife Florence lived there. Mrs {{Not a typo|Northen}} (65) was inside and killed by the tower's collapse; Mr {{Not a typo|Northen}} was outside and survived.
The driveway to where Volta Tower stood still exists and a farm has been built on top of the tower's location as well as a bungalow. Nothing of the tower exists today apart from one carved stone figure of a cherub from close to the top of the tower which was auctioned in 2005 and bought by a Finedon resident.<ref>[http://www.gildings.co.uk/view_online.php?catalogue=1086&items_per_page=100000&printer=true&lot_category= Gildings auction record]</ref> The tower is commemorated in Finedon's town sign.
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== * [http://www.thevoltatower.weebly.com "The Volta Tower official website"]
==Sources== *John Bailey, ''Finedon Revealed'', 1987, {{ISBN|0-9504250-1-X}} *John Bailey, ''Look at Finedon'', 2005, {{ISBN|0-9504250-2-8}} {{coord|52|20|N|0|39|W|region:GB_type:city|display=title}}
Category:Buildings and structures in Northamptonshire Category:Folly towers in England Category:Towers completed in 1865 Category:Towers in Northamptonshire Category:Finedon