Evesham Bell Tower


Evesham Bell Tower is the freestanding belfry for the town of Evesham, Worcestershire. Originally founded in 1207 by Adam Sortes, the present tower, the fourth to stand on the same site, was founded and built by Clement Lichfield, Abbot of Evesham, as the bell tower for Evesham Abbey in the 16th century. It is the only part of the abbey complex to survive wholly intact.
Considered one of England's finest medieval belfries, the tower sits in the centre of Abbey Park, alongside the parish churches of All Saints and St Lawrence. Since the Dissolution of the Monasteries, during which Evesham Abbey was almost entirely demolished, the tower has served as the belfry for the town's churches. The tower is the town's most significant landmark and is designated a Grade I listed building on the National Heritage List for England, the highest rating.
The tower has been widely celebrated for its architecture, being possibly the largest and most complete example of a late medieval belfry in the country. The author and historian James Lees-Milne said the tower is "one of the nation's architectural treasures".

History

Previous towers

First tower (1207−1291)

The construction of the first recorded freestanding bell tower at Evesham Abbey took place at the start of the 13th century, when Thomas of Marlborough, Prior of Evesham, gave money towards the building of a bell tower that "Master Sortes had begun", in approximately 1207.
Whilst it is unknown when this tower was completed, the bell tower or 'campanile de Evesham' as it was then known, was struck by lightning in 1261, the resulting fire causing significant damage. Repairs to the tower are not recorded until 1278−1279.
In 1291, the majority of the tower collapsed in a storm, referenced in John Leland's Antiquarii de rebus britannicis collectanea. A passage in Leland's collection reads:. This implies a feature of Sortes' tower was a lead-lined spire which topped the tower and that the majority collapsed.

Second and third towers

From 1319−1320, William of Stow, at the time the Abbey's sacrist, is recorded as building a new detached bell tower, the cost of which he subsidised by twenty marks. No further records of Stow's tower exists.
Between 1379 and 1395, Roger Zatton, Abbot of Evesham, contributed to the construction of a bell tower built in stone. During his time as Abbot, Zatton undertook many projects to the improvement of the abbey and its estates. The causes of the replacement of Stow's tower or events following the construction of the third tower are unknown.

Present tower

Early history

In 1524, Clement Lichfield, Abbot of Evesham, began construction of a large stone freestanding bell tower, replacing Zatton's tower. Lichfield, like Zatton, undertook a great deal of work on the abbey and estate, including on the neighbouring churches of St Lawrence and All Saints and it is implied both from contemporary sources and an inscription on the eastern tower arch that the bell tower was intended to be his crowning achievement.
Construction lasted from 1524 to 1532 and the building fund was supplemented by donations and bequests, both from the population of Evesham and from further afield, one such example being a donation from John Molder, vicar at Little Wolford, Warwickshire.
Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries, which demolished Evesham Abbey, Lichfield's tower, and indeed all three which came before it, stood on the north side of the Abbey complex, close to the north transept of the abbey church. The tower's principle facades look east and west, over the monk's graveyard and parish graveyard respectively. The tower was built not only to act as a bell tower for the abbey and the two churches, but also as a gateway between the two cemeteries. The tower was built with a portal, as the distinction between the burial ground for the monks and that for the townspeople was important.
During the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the abbot of Evesham, now Philip Hawford since Lichfield's resignation in 1538, petitioned Henry VIII to save the abbey by converting it into a royal collage. The petitions failed, however, and the abbey was surrendered and then dissolved in January 1540. Demolition progressed quickly and by October of the same year, the majority of the abbey had been reduced to piles of stone.

Post dissolution

In August 1541, Philip Hoby, a member of the royal household, was granted a twenty-one year lease of the monastery site in a letter from Henry VIII. However, the letter makes reference to the fact that the bells and tower were excluded from this lease, keeping them for the profit of the crown. The tower was unable to be demolished until the bells within it were sold for profit. However, in John Scudamore's accounts, he makes note of the fact there is still one bell in the tower. In 1553 or 1554, Mary I granted the one remaining bell to the town, describing the tower as a "clock house", thus saving it from demolition.
At a meeting of the town council in May 1674, it was reported that the pinnacles on the west side of the tower were decaying and that to fund their repair, a levy could be ordered. Further repairs were necessary in 1754 when the canopy was repaired, repainted and renewed, and in 1820, to the internal woodwork.

Modern era

The church accounts show that regular repair work to the tower and the bells were necessary, most notably in 1848 when the stonework was repointed and the roof renewed, requiring scaffolding to be erected. The pinnacles were strengthened with iron clamps and the weathervanes on those pinnacles reset. The tower roof was repaired again in 1875 together with new internal floors and the regilding of the clock faces.
No further work was carried out to the tower itself until 1937 when concern began to mount about the condition of the stonework. The firm of architects Ellery Anderson Roiser & Falconer was commissioned to produce a detailed report on the fabric, and their findings were that the pinnacles were in particularly poor condition, suffering both the full force of the prevailing wind and damage from within by the iron clamps. The iron clamps had rusted and forced apart the stonework, causing it to crack. Though work was recommended, the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 stopped the work before it could begin.
It was not until 1947 that Roiser returned and provided a new report, in which they mention that the condition of the tower had deteriorated further. They did, however, suggest that the incomplete fan vaulted ceiling over the tower gateway could be completed as part of the work to restore the tower. The parish did not have the funds for such a large and expensive restoration, so a 'Bell Tower Restoration Committee' was formed to raise the funds, chaired by the Mayor of Evesham. The scope of the work, which lasted until 1952, included repairs to the stonework, repairing the clock and chiming mechanisms as well as recasting the bells. The total scheme, upon its completion in 1953, had cost £8,475, well over the cost estimated in 1947 of £6,000.
During August 2012, some large pieces of stonework fell from the tower, resulting in inspections on the condition of the structure. The inspections report in February 2013 showed that the tower needed an estimated £500,000 of repairs. Following a successful Heritage Lottery Fund application, which awarded £45,000 in November 2013, and further fundraising, the work was undertaken between April 2015 and February 2016. The stonework on each level of the tower was cleaned and restored, the weathervanes regilded and the clock faces repaired. To complete the project, a commemorative stone plaque was placed on the tower.

Architecture

The tower is virtually unaltered from its original appearance in the 16th century, which makes it a rare survivor of the medieval period. Replacement of stonework has been confined to the pinnacles and parapet, but in facsimile, preserving its appearance. The only physical alterations have been the replacement of the clock dials and the removal of the jacks. The only other difference is the lack of the original white limewash, which has faded over time and is now no longer visible except for in isolated patches on the eastern side of the tower.
The tower is square and high to the top of the pinnacles. The design follows a square plan with off-set stepped corner buttresses. Designed and constructed in the late Perpendicular Gothic period, the tower bears similarities with other church towers in the Midlands of a similar age, most notably the central towers of Gloucester and Worcester cathedrals, the former in the pinnacles and the latter with the stone panelling. The tower is constructed from oolite limestone.
The tower is formed of three stages, each separated by a deep band of stonework that acts as a sill to the windows:
  • At ground level, a large arch pierces the tower in its eastern and western faces. The arches are elaborately moulded with crocketted ogee decoration rising to a crocketted pinnacle over the centre. The eastern and west faces of the lower two stages have extensive stone panelling. The interior of the first stage contains corbels supporting an unfinished fan vault.
  • The second stage contains two large four-light traceried windows in the Perpendicular Gothic style, one each in the western and eastern faces. Like the arch below it, it has an ogee dripstone and a crocketted pinnacle, and like the lowest stage, is extensively panelled. The north and south faces are plainer, each one containing one larger round headed window at the top, the south face also containing three smaller slit windows for lighting the staircase.
  • The third or belfry stage contains a pair of windows on all except the south face, again with ogee dripstone and crocketted pinnacle. Each window is divided into two vertical segments by mullions, and two horizontal segments, by transoms. The lowest half of each opening is stone panelled, the upper half containing louvres; the clock faces are situated in this lower panelled section. The south face of this stage contains only one window, rather than the pair seen on the other faces of the tower; it also lacks a clock face.
  • The tower is crowned with an openwork trefoil parapet featuring crocketted pinnacles on each corner and one smaller one in the centre of the parapet.