WORK is going on at Kimmeridge to save the 177-year-old Clavell Tower from crumbling into the sea.

The observatory and folly was built in 1830 with three storeys and a distinctive Tuscan colonnade.

It is famous as the place where author Thomas Hardy courted Eliza Bright Nicols, it was used as a frontispiece for his Wessex Poems and it inspired PD James's novel, The Black Tower.

But it became derelict after being gutted by fire in the 1930s while coastal erosion saw the tower come perilously close to being destroyed.

That threat saw the Clavell Tower Trust and the Smedmore Estate approach the Landmark Trust for help and an emergency appeal was launched in 2004.

Donations and grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other groups such as the Country Houses Foundation and Dorset County Council enabled work to start on a unique conservation solution to save the historic structure from falling into the sea.

It saw the Tower painstakingly dismantled and work is now going on to re-erect it 25 metres back from the crumbling cliff face.

Once restoration of the Tower is complete it will be let for holidays so that its rental income can pay for future on-going maintenance.