Baker’s Folly in The Avenue — 1916 literary source

Nina Townshend’s 1916 school-magazine essay shows that the name Baker’s Folly was already in print. Its dream sequence must not be mistaken for biography.

“Baker’s Folly” appeared in the March 1916 issue of The Avenue, the magazine of Friends’ School at Saffron Walden. Its author, Nina Townshend, describes a descent to the unfinished house, terraces and pool before the narrative develops into a dream.

The essay matters as contemporary evidence that the nickname was circulating while the project remained unfinished. It also shows how quickly a striking building could acquire its own story. The narrator’s claims about the owner’s finances and arrest are not independent evidence that those events happened.

The December issue’s Literary Society report included Townshend’s piece among the year’s best essays. Its school athletics report also names her. These records establish her place in the school’s life, but do not establish that she swam at Baker’s Folly or had any connection with the later evacuated college.