Somerset towers facts for kids
The Somerset towers are a special group of tall, mostly spireless church towers. You can find them in the county of Somerset in southwest England. They are famous for their unique Gothic style.
What Makes Them Special?
Many people think these towers are amazing. A writer named Simon Jenkins even called them some of England's best medieval art. Other experts have said:
"They stand out because of their style, detailed decorations, and great height. From them, you can see the low, flat plains of Somerset."
"Somerset has about 90 late medieval towers. Fifty of these are truly great designs. This gives the county a special place in English art history. The rich wool trade in the 1400s paid for these amazing designs. They were built by skilled workers, often in small villages. They still impress us today."
These towers were often built on the foundations of older Norman churches. They are in the Perpendicular Gothic style. This means they have lots of straight lines and tall windows. The towers became important landmarks for travelers. They are usually square and have strong corner supports called buttresses. Most are on the west side of the churches.
Some towers are very tall, over 100 feet (30 m) high. The north tower of Wells Cathedral, built in 1440, is 182 feet (55 m) tall! Most towers hold bells. Bell-ringing is a tradition that still happens in some of these churches.
Many of these churches are protected as important historical buildings. They are called "Grade I listed buildings." This means they are very important for their architecture or history. Others are "Grade II* listed," meaning they are also very special.
Building so many towers was a big job. Some started before 1360. It usually involved a master builder and a small team of traveling builders. Local workers from the parish also helped. However, some experts think leading architects designed these towers. They based their ideas on grand cathedral designs. Then, other builders carried out the plans. They added new and unique details as new designs appeared.
It's amazing how much money and how many skilled workers were available. They built or rebuilt so many churches in a short time. The towers were where the Perpendicular builders showed their greatest skill.
Cool Features
The Somerset towers were inspired by big churches like Gloucester Cathedral, Wells Cathedral, and Glastonbury Abbey. These places were built or updated in the 1300s. But the builders of the Somerset towers also came up with new ideas. They borrowed designs from each other. They added more levels and fancy decorations when there was money. The Reformation in the 1500s mostly stopped this building boom.
What makes Somerset towers special are their beautiful details. These include tall, pointed decorations called pinnacles. They also have lacy window designs called tracery. You can see bell openings, gargoyles (stone carvings of creatures), and decorated doors. There are also arches, parapets (low walls), buttresses, and merlons (parts of the parapet). Some even have tall external stair turrets.
This "icing" of sculpted decoration was often made from colorful stone. It came from soft limestone quarries around Somerset. These include Bath stone, Doulting stone, Dundry stone, and Hamstone. This type of stone, called freestone, can be cut in any direction. This made it possible to create fancy curves and fine details. But because it's soft, it can wear away over time due to weather.
For the foundations and walls, blue lias was often used. This is another type of limestone from the area. Builders usually used stone from the closest quarries. This included red sandstone and softer freestone. Quarries at Ham Hill, Bath, Doulting, and North Curry were common sources.
How We Date and Classify Them
Experts disagree on how fast these towers were built. Some think it took only a year or two. Others believe it was more like 10 feet (3 m) per year. This allowed the building to settle slowly. Wealthy people and local churches paid for the towers. They wanted to show their faith and their wealth.
Nikolaus Pevsner noted that in the late 1300s, Somerset made a quarter of England's wool products. This wealth helped pay for the towers. The wool boom also led to many fancy churches in Suffolk, though they looked a bit different. Some Somerset churches also got support from nearby monasteries. These included places like Muchelney, Athelney, Glastonbury, and Bath.
Because the towers are so old, there are not many records. We don't always know exactly when or who built them. But for over a hundred years, experts have studied and tried to classify them. People like Edward Augustus Freeman, Dr. F.J. Allen, and R. P. Brereton created early ways to group the towers.
Later, a person named Wickham agreed with many of these ideas. He looked at the age and window styles. He thought one group, the North Somerset towers, was wrongly classified. In 1981, Poyntz Wright tried to use computer analysis. He created a way to classify the towers. He wanted to find patterns that showed when they were built and which teams of builders worked on them.
Poyntz Wright looked at details like the number of windows. He also checked the pinnacles, merlons, and buttresses. He described different "generations" of towers and suggested rough dates. For example, he called one early group "The Churchill Generation." This included churches at Churchill, Compton Martin, and Compton Bishop. These towers were smaller. They had one window on each side of the top section. They also had a top wall without merlons and four square corner pinnacles.
However, in 1984, John H. Harvey disagreed with Poyntz Wright's ideas. Harvey said that the tower arches (the big archways at the base of the tower) are better clues. He felt that decorative parts could be changed later. But the tower arch is almost always part of the original building.
Harvey suggested that many towers were built later than Poyntz Wright thought. Some were even built earlier. He said Yeovil's church was one of the earliest Somerset towers. He thought it started before 1400. He saw similarities in its design to the work of William Wynford. Wynford worked on Winchester and Wells Cathedrals.
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St. John's church in Yeovil
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St. Cuthbert parish church, Wells
Harvey believed Wynford's southwest tower of Wells Cathedral was the start of the typical "Somerset Tower." It also led to the idea of a spireless tower across England. Harvey thought Wynford, who died in 1405, helped design St Cuthbert's parish church. This church is near Wells Cathedral. It shows how the Somerset tower style spread.
In the end, Harvey said that a proper dating of these towers needs a team of experts. They would need to study history, documents, and architecture. They would gather all clues to create a final dating system. Until then, the dates and ideas from Poyntz Wright should be seen as suggestions.
See also
- List of Somerset towers
- Towers in Somerset
- English Gothic architecture
