Round Tower Churches
You can’t see it because the current church building stands on top of the ruins, but the first Bowthorpe church had a round tower. ‘So what?’ I hear you say. Well, did you know that round towers are peculiar to the East of England and most of them are in Norfolk and north Suffolk? Until recently I didn’t have a clue. When you drive around the country you expect to see different styles of churches standing proudly in the centre of their communities, built from local materials. But I had no idea that round towers were so geographically restrained. There are 123 of them in Norfolk alone, a further 11 are in ruins and 10 have disappeared completely whilst in Suffolk there are 38 still standing, 3 in ruins and 2 have disappeared completely. The rest of England has a total of 8.
So why do we have round towers? Good question, no one really knows for sure. It’s believed that they started building them during the Saxon period as some early ones have Saxon style windows. They were used to house the bell and for this reason some people have said they were built to provide early warning against Viking invaders. This is unlikely as most of them are inland away from the coast and rivers. Others have said they used to be wells and the ground shrank (yes, I kid you not. I think that goes down as an old wives tale) whilst one of the most popular ones is to do with building materials. Most our old churches are built from flint (occasionally pebbles) as it is the local material and the school of thought was that you could only build round towers with flints. But this is stuff and nonsense. There are just as many square tower churches in Norfolk as round. Another reason could be that the parish could not afford to buy the stone for the corners of the tower. However, the current thinking is that it was to do with fashion or culture. Just imagine that the people of parish X decided to add a tower to their nave, the builder came in and sucked through his teeth and said, ‘Na mate, you don’t want one of them, that’s old fashioned now. What you want is a nice round one like they’ve got down the road at parish Y’ So Parish X decide to copy parish Y. Then parish Z decide they want a tower just like their neighbours only they want theirs to be taller or wider or with windows. You get my drift. We want what other people have got, only ours has got to be a bit better. It’s human nature. And a friend pointed out the other day Bowthorpe, Colney and Bawburgh all have round towers. I wonder who copied who?
So the next time you are out and about have a look at churches as you drive past (without crashing the car, please), you won’t have to go far before you find one. Colney church is a nice example; if you’re sitting at the hospital traffic lights have a look. And Bawburgh church is a lovely quirky building.