How Hill Tower

How Hill Tower is a historic 18th century building at Studley Royal Park, a World Heritage Site in North Yorkshire, in England, close to the site of, and/or incorporating the remains of, an earlier medieval chapel. An earlier structure on the site, the Chapel of Saint Michael de Monte, was built for Fountains Abbey in the 13th century. This became a minor medieval pilgrimage site. Visitors to the site could see both York Minster and Ripon Cathedral from its summit. The flooring was made of mosaic tiles, similar to those attributed to a painted pavement dating to between 1236 and 1247. Marmaduke Huby either repaired or rebuilt it between 1494 and 1526. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries it initially served local women, but was abandoned by 1600 and fell into ruin. In 1719, John Aislabie commissioned a folly tower, as part of his initial design of Studley Royal Park, adjacent to (and possibly re-using stones from) the ruins of the old chapel. Likely designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, the view from the tower extended across the Studley estates, and York could even be seen 26 miles (42 km) away. In 1737, gaming tables were installed, while later in the century, the tower and further chapel ruins adjacent to it were converted into farm outbuildings. In 1810, an estate survey recorded a farmhouse on the site, but by 1822 the description had changed to "How Hill House & Tower". Presumably, the site had lost its significance as a garden building in a designed landscape and was commissioned to a more functional use. Wilfred Owen considered living in the building while it was being let out as two cottages. During the Second World War the Home Guard used it as an observation post. As at 1975 and 1984 its condition was somewhat ruinous, but it appears that restoration of both the tower and attached buildings was carried out between 1984 and 2006 (refer "Gallery"). The tower was Grade II* listed in 1986. The tower and outbuildings are built of limestone and gritstone with…