Approach the delightful East Sussex village of Brightling and you will see the church on a prominent site.

At first glance it looks like any other historic church but take a closer look and you view something truly spectacular.

In the churchyard stands a pyramid 25 feet high and correspondingly broad. It dwarfs the graves and almost competes with the church for size.

This curious construction is the last resting place of John Fuller, MP for East Sussex a couple of centuries ago. So odd was he that people called him Mad Jack.

For many years it was a rumoured that Fuller had been buried sitting at a table eating a full meal with a glass of claret nearby. But an excavation later proved this was not so and the burial had been normal.

The pyramid is one of several follies in the Brightling area built for Mad Jack and most of them still survive.

There is the Rotunda Temple in Brightling Park, built in Grecian style where locals said Fuller gambled and entertained female friends.

A nearby tower could have been erected to give warnings of a French invasion as it gave views of the sea.

The Sugar Loaf in Brightling Park was used for many years as a home. Local legend has it that Fuller wagered he could see the spire of Dallington Church from his estate. When he found he could not, he had the folly erected in the same style to win the bet.

An observatory on the Brightling to Burwash road was at one time in full use. It is said servants kept a watch with the telescope so that they could put Fuller’s house in order when they saw his coach approach from London.

The obelisk in Brightling Park may have been built to commemorate Wellington’s victory over Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815.

Born in 1757, Fuller lost his parents when young but inherited their wealth on his 20th birthday including the Brightling estate.

He was elected MP for East Sussex in 1807 and was a patriot who also opposed the abolition of slavery.

Weighing 22 stone and with a loud voice, Fuller was a man who could not be missed and was involved in frequent rows. Once he called the Speaker “an insignificant little man in a wig".

He was ejected from the House of Commons in 1810 during a stormy foreign affairs debate for insulting people and shouting at them. It ended his political career and he did not stand again.

Fuller then devoted himself to good causes, supporting the painter Turner who completed several pictures of the neighbourhood and stayed at Brightling.

He also backed Robert Smirke, a noted architect who designed several of the follies. Fuller supported scientists including Michael Faraday and gave more than £10,000 to the Royal Institution. It commissioned a bust of him in return.

Fuller also financed repairs to Bodiam Castle and paid for Belle Tout lighthouse to be built on the cliffs near Beachy Head in 1834 just before his death.