The Norman Tower, the belfry for St Edmundsbury Cathedral, is one of the UK’s best preserved Norman structures. It was built as the principal western gateway into the Abbey of St Edmunds in 1120-1148, at a time when the monastic precinct was extended over part of the town. The tower walls are nearly two metres thick and comprise a core of flint rubble and facing of shell-rich limestone from the Barnack quarries in Lincolnshire. Doors to the north and south of the ringing chamber once led out to the precinct wall, and its foundations are marked at ground level.
The Abbey was one of the richest and most powerful Benedictine monasteries in Europe and the town at its gates is a fine example of urban planning. A grid of streets was added to an earlier settlement centred on Northgate and Southgate Streets, and the geometry of the town plan was aligned to the Norman church (begun in 1080) and ultimately the shrine at its heart. The Norman Tower and Churchgate Street line up with nave, and with the central of the three huge doorways that can still be discerned in the ruins of the west front. Pilgrims would likely have entered through the gate, and in the medieval period, goldsmiths and glovers - the wealthiest trades – were concentrated around the gate in Chequer’s Square and Crown Street.
The architecture is elaborate, with striking geometric designs. Closer inspection can also reveal a lion, dragon, female figure, human heads and beasties with cat’s ears – mainly on the western side, and perhaps, to the medieval mind, a warning of the spiritual dangers to being outside of the wall. Early prints show that the Tower also had a battlemented parapet and a tympanum - a carved frieze of Christ in Majesty filling the arch towards Churchgate Street. This was removed in 1789 to allow carts to pass through into the churchyard. The appearance gives a tantalising indication of what other parts of the abbey may have looked like.
The Abbey church would have towered over visitors and the town. The adjacent cathedral tower was completed in 2005 as a Millennium Project, and saw a reintroduction of buildings of scale into the landscape.
In 1327, the townspeople revolted against the oppressive control of the abbey, and destroyed what was likely a sister gate to the Norman Tower at the bottom of Abbeygate Street- the current Abbey Gate was built in 1347.
The Norman Tower survived the reformation and may have early on been the belfry for the parish church of St James (now St Edmundsbury cathedral).
The cathedral bells include the original ring of ten cast by Thomas Osborn of Downham Market in 1785, and the bell frame of this date is preserved in the tower above the modern frame.
By the 1840s, the tower was severely cracked and demolition was proposed, but fortunately public subscription was raised to save it. The architect for the restoration of 1846-7 was L.S. Cottingham, who worked on many such projects. Houses had been built next to the tower, but they were removed at this time. Historical prints also show that it also had, at different times, a clock, cupola and a sun dial.
The bells were rehung in a cast iron frame and retuned by Taylors of Loughborough in 1977, the tenor weighing 27-2-5 in C# after restoration. A roof lantern was installed at this date, and the belfry windows blocked. The area around the base of the tower was also excavated to 12th century level – the depth is due to centuries of occupation and also deliberate build-up at various times to try to alleviate flooding.
The Very Revd Neil Collings, who served as Dean 2006-9, had a vision to augment the bells to a 12, as befitting a cathedral, and this became a reality in 2012. A thirteenth bell, a flat sixth, was added in his memory in 2013.
(c) Abby Antrobus
Find out more: https://www.abbeyofstedmund.org.uk/
You can find out more about the stonework on the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/