St Leonard's Tower, West Malling
| St Leonard's Tower | |
|
Kent | |
|---|---|
 St Leonard's Tower, West Malling | |
| Type: | Tower house |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ67585708 |
| Village: | West Malling |
| History | |
| Built c1090 | |
| Tower house | |
| Norman | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | English Heritage |
| Website: | St Leonard’s Tower – English Heritage |
St Leonard's Tower is a Norman keep in West Malling, in Kent, which stands beside Manor Park Country Park, along St Leonard's Road.
The tower was built by Bishop Gundulf around 1080.
History
Middle Ages
St Leonard's Tower was constructed in the manor of West Malling, probably between 1077 and 1108, although its exact origins are unclear.[1] Early theories proposed that the tower was a part of St Leonard's Church, the first records of which date from around 1120.[2][3][4] This theory suggested that the tower was built by Gundulf, the Bishop of Rochester from 1077 onwards, who owned the manor and constructed Malling Abbey, a nearby nunnery.[5] The tower could have acted as a bell tower for the church, which survived until the rest of the building was destroyed in the 18th century.[5][6]
Most recent studies have disputed that the tower was ever part of a church, arguing instead that it was a small Norman keep.[7][6] Architecturally, the tower closely resembles other square keeps of the period.[8][6] If it was an ecclesiastical building, it would have been extremely large in comparison with the rest of the relatively small church, and there is no evidence to indicate that it ever had a religious function.[8]
It remains likely, however, that it was constructed by Gundulf, based primarily on the history of the land holdings during the period.[9] After the founding of the abbey, which Gundulf granted some of his lands around West Malling, St Leonard's became the administrative centre of Gundulf's remaining estates, before also being given to the nuns a few years later, shortly after his death in 1108.[9] In practice, probably only Gundulf would therefore have had the time or motivation to build such a keep during this period.[9]
Later history
At some point in the post-medieval period, the tower was deliberately damaged to put it beyond military use, a process called slighting.[10]<name=north275/> This probably occurred towards the end of the Civil War, after the defeat of the Royalist forces in Kent at the Battle of Maidstone.[10] The tower was then owned by Sir John Rayney of Wrotham Place, a Royalist, and would have been an effective lookout tower in any future conflict.[10] There appears to have been an attempt to bring down the whole tower by damaging the stair turret at its base, possibly using gunpowder, which failed due to the spiral staircase's unusually strong design.[10][11] After this the upper storey of the tower was carefully removed instead, leaving the building roofless.[10]
Various studies of the tower took place from the late 18th century onwards.[12] The antiquarian Francis Grose noted in 1783 that the tower was then called the Old Gaol, recording a local tradition that the abbey had used the basement as a dungeon, and the upper storeys as a prison for lesser offences.[13] During this period, the tower was used for drying and stowing hops, probably in advance of their being taken to local kilns.[14][15][10] The artist J. M. W. Turner visited and sketched the tower around 1791.[16] A group of French antiquarians visited in 1840, and commented on the considerable age of the building.[17] Around 1863, a hole in the west wall, left by the attempted destruction of the stair turret, was filled with a new entrance way.[10]
In 1915, the owner of the tower, H. J. Wood, discussed selling it to the Commissioners of Works, proposing a price of approximately £1,500; the negotiations broke down.[18] By the 1930s, local magistrates expressed concern about the tower and the risk that it might fall over onto the grounds of a neighbouring private asylum, the Kent Sanatorium, endangering the patients.[19] As an alternative to demolition, it was taken into the guardianship of the Office of Works in 1937.[19]
In the 21st century, St Leonard's Tower is managed by English Heritage and the exterior is open to visitors. It is a Grade I listed building and a scheduled ancient monument.[20]
Structure
St Leonard's Tower is located on the edge of the village of West Malling, on a sandstone promontory, overlooking a valley leading down to the river River Medway.[20][21] The base of the tower rests directly on the rock, levelled up with masonry to form a plinth.[9] The tower was probably originally surrounded by service buildings, possibly within a walled enclosure, part of which may survive in the stone wall running from the castle to the north-east.[20]
The square tower, or keep, is built of layers of local Kentish ragstone rubble and masonry, with white and grey tufa ashlar detailing and facing.[20]</ref>[22] After the post-medieval slighting, it forms a two-storey building around 60 feet high; it would previously been three storeys and at least 72 feet high.[23] The tower is ten yards across externally, with walls six feet thick.[23] It has corner pilaster buttresses, the north-west buttress forming a corner tower, and a central buttress on the north side. The north-east and south-east sides of the tower are decorated with arcades of round-headed arches.[1]
The basement is lit by windows set high in the walls; the original entrance to the tower is positioned in the north-east corner, about ten feet from the ground outside, although this has been blocked up since at least 1772, and replaced by a new entrance in the north-west corner at ground level.[20][9] The first floor has larger windows, and a stone seat overlooking the original entrance, possibly used by a porter to watch the entrance.[24] The first floor may have been used for formal events, and the tower's upper floors may have provided chambers for the bishop and his staff.[20][25] The floors are linked by a spiral staircase contained in the north-west tower; unusually, the staircase was built without a central newel and was particularly wide for the period.[24]
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about St Leonard's Tower, West Malling) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "History of St Leonard's Tower". English Heritage. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/st-leonards-tower/history/.
- ↑ North 2001, pp. 269–270
- ↑ Anonymous 1905, p. 187
- ↑ Hope 1903, p. 90
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 North 2001, pp. 270–272
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Guy 2000–2001, p. 6
- ↑ Fry 2014, p. 31
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Shapland 2012, p. 219
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 North 2001, p. 272
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 St Leonard's Tower: The Malling Society (Michael North, 2014)
- ↑ North 2001, pp. 273, 275
- ↑ North 2001, p. 269
- ↑ Grose 1783, p. 119
- ↑ Grose 1783, p. 119
- ↑ Hasted 1798, p. 526
- ↑ Wilton, Andrew. "West Malling: St Leonard's Tower". Tate. http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-west-malling-st-leonards-tower-d40228.
- ↑ Mackenzie 1896, p. 45
- ↑ Fry 2014, pp. 31, 72
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Fry 2014, p. 31
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 National Heritage List 1013382: Tower keep castle at West Malling (Scheduled ancient monument entry); National Heritage List 1219087: St Leonard's Tower (Grade I listing)
- ↑ Mackenzie 1896, p. 44
- ↑ North 2001, p. 272
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 North 2001, p. 273
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 North 2001, p. 274
- ↑ North 2001, pp. 276–277
- Coles Finch, William (1925). In Kentish Pilgrim Land. London: C W Daniel.