We've seen it on television - the nation's fascination with restoring some of our best loved old buildings, and this week's Open Country takes up the theme of restoration as Richard Uridge meets several Salopians devoted to rebuilding different aspects of our history and heritage.

First, he goes to meet Sula Rayska who bought a tumble down folly for the princely sum of £1.00 four years ago and has set up the Flounders Folly Trust to rebuild the tower so that the public can enjoy its spectacular views over Shropshire and Wales. Built on a hill near to the town of Craven Arms by the rich Quaker Benjamin Flounder in 1838 and left to crumble in the 20th century, the folly became a subject of fascination for Sula as she spotted it from the road and railway between Ludlow to Shrewsbury. After painstaking research, Sula discovered that the actress Julie Christie had owned it at one time but had sold it on to an unknown buyer. The high liability costs meant that no-one wanted to take responsibility for it. So eventually Sula was offered the folly for just one pound. She formed a trust that now officially owns Flounders Folly and it is currently being repaired and rebuilt so that people can visit this landmark in the Shropshire countryside once again.

Rayska Heritage

On the other side of the Corvedale from the folly, Richard meets Richard Craven, a woodworker and forester who was working in the woods one day when he discovered a ruined cottage hidden in the woodland. That was in 1996 and he then became in his words "obsessed" by the cottage and has spent the subsequent years rebuilding and restoring the building. Jack Clee's cottage was built in the late 1700s to house farm workers, but Richard also believes it was built as a kind of folly to enhance the view from the great house at Diddlebury. Having spent four years restoring the cottage, it is now home, from where Richard works as a woodworker making timber buildings and follies. The chance discovery of the building eight years ago has led to the opportunity of a lifetime allowing Richard to live in a house that has seen little alteration from its original state.

Since the mid 1960s, much of the Newport Canal has lain abandoned, leaking and increasingly overgrown with weeds and waterlilies in a sorry state that belies its history as a major transportation route around the hub of early British industry. Fortunately, canals have now been identified as being hugely beneficial to our towns and cities and local people have woken up to the employment and leisure opportunities of having a fully functional canal running through their area. The Shrewsbury and Newport Canals Trust are overseeing the restoration of the canal at a cost of several millions of pounds. Rodney Pitt takes Richard along the canal towpath at Newport and tells him why, despite the great expense, he believes it will be worth it to see boats sailing down it and people walking along it again.

The Shrewsbury and Newport Canals Trust

Returning to south Shropshire, Richard discovers an initiative that is bringing together art and nature in the form of an open air gallery at Burford House near Tenbury Wells. The gallery is situated in a restored meadow of wild flowers on disused agricultural land next to the house. It is currently housing six sculptures by the internationally acclaimed sculptor Stephen Cox, one of which replicates the nearby Clee Hill using stone from the quarry there. Richard discusses with Stephen and Anne de Charman, the gallery curator, the idea of placing art in a so called "natural" environment and how it changes with the seasons.

The Meadow Gallery

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