Description
Book SynopsisIt has long been assumed that England lay outside the Western European tradition of castle-building until after the Norman Conquest of 1066. It is now becoming apparent that Anglo-Saxon lords had been constructing free-standing towers at their residences all across England over the course of the tenth and eleventh centuries. Initially these towers were exclusively of timber, and quite modest in their scale, although only a handful are known from archaeological excavation. There followed the so-called ''tower-nave'' churches, towers with only a tiny chapel located inside, which appear to have had a dual function as buildings of elite worship and symbols of secular power and authority. For the first time, this book gathers together the evidence for these remarkable buildings, many of which still stand incorporated into the fabric of Norman and later parish churches and castles. It traces their origin in monasteries, where kings and bishops drew upon Continental European practice to const
Trade ReviewMuch of interest * P.S. Barnwell, Ecclesiology Today *
The volume certainly fulfils its aim to establish tower-nave churches as a recognisable part of the architectural repertoire of the early medieval period, and it does so in an accessible and engaging manner. * Claire Nesbitt, Antiquity *
anglo-Saxon Towers of Lordship brings refreshing new intelligence to a topic bedecked with two centuries of scholarly tradition * David Stocker, University of Leeds, The Society for Medieval Archaeology *
Table of ContentsIntroduction PART I: SYNTHESIS 1: A corpus of monastic tower-naves 2: A corpus of lordly tower-naves PART II: INTERPRETATION 3: Monastic tower-naves and tower-nave origins 4: Tower-naves, lordly towers, and the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy 5: Tower-nave churches in comparative perspective Conclusion Appendix: A List of Equivocal Tower-Naves
