At our March meeting our guest speaker Mr Richard Barham gave a very interesting talk about the round tower churches in Norfolk. Supporting the talk with slides Richard went through the origins of such towers and the reasons why they were round and the materials used.
Out of 183 round tower Churches in England, 124 are in Norfolk, Suffolk has 40 and there are a few in Essex and elsewhere.
As we know, local Churches are built of flint but it is very awkward to make square corners from such material. Where it was used, the corners of the square towers are very ragged. It was much easier to make them round.
It was over time when other stones and even bricks would enable the builders to make the tower square and so the round towers were no longer in vogue and lost their appeal. Square towers are much easier to build. The slides illustrated the various stages of the build due to slight changes in the flints, the mortar and other materials.
Where excavations have been made it was discovered that some square towers have in fact been built on round tower foundations. Some of the churches especially in west Norfolk have been built using carrstone which is a material especially found in the west of the County.
The speaker explained how some landed gentry had their own churches and how local people were supposedly expected to build and maintain the local churches. Some towers have fallen down and not repaired to their former glory but were made safe and into a feature of the church.
Richard also identified the various architectural features especially the Saxon and Norman windows in these towers, and in some instances a combination of the two. The members were thoroughly engrossed in this subject and only time brought this interesting evening to a close.
Barry Leggett