Beccles bell tower

Infobox Historic building

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caption=
name=Beccles bell tower
location_town=Beccles
location_country=England
architect=
client=
engineer=
construction_start_date=c1500
completion_date=1540
date_demolished=
cost=
structural_system=
style=Perpendicular Gothic
size= The Beccles bell tower is a free-standing edifice associated with the adjacent St. Michael's church in the market town of Beccles, Suffolk, England.

It stands near the edge of a cliff overlooking the River Waveney, the bell tower rises an additional convert|97|ft|m|1|lk=on and is thirty feet square (9m) at its base. It dominates the town as well as the surrounding countryside, much of which is comprised by The Broads National Park. Views of the Waveney, the North Sea on the eastern horizon, and the flat terrain of the broads extending south into Suffolk and, across the river, into nearby Norfolk, can be obtained by scaling the hundred steps to the top of the tower.

Construction started around 1500, [cite web | title= Detached tower of the church of St Michael | work=Images of England | url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?pid=2&id=362923 | accessdate=2007-10-23] under the direction of the monks of the Abbey of St Edmundsbury, the important pilgrimage destination in the nearby town of Bury St. Edmunds. Like the main body of St. Michael's church, [cite web | title= Church of St Michael | work=Images of England | url=http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/details.aspx?pid=2&id=362922 | accessdate=2007-10-23] the tower is Perpendicular Gothic in style. The tower is supported by deep foundations, very thick walls faced with Roche Abbey stone (so called because of its use in the now-ruined abbey near Maltby, South Yorkshire), and huge buttresses; there is a neweled staircase at each corner of the tower.

It is customary for bell towers (also called campanile) to be built at the western end of a church, the end opposite the altar. However, the site at Beccles, near the edge of a cliff, and the enormous weight of the proposed tower, approximately three thousand tons, dictated that the tower be built to the east of the church as a free-standing structure.cite web |url=http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/beccles.html |title=St Michael, Beccles |accessdate=2007-10-23 |format= |work=Suffolk Churches ] Local historians believe that the tower was originally intended to have a steeple and spire but after forty years of construction, the Protestant Reformation during the reign of King Henry VIII (and the suppression of Roman Catholic institutions) intervened to bring work to a halt.Fact|date=October 2007

Great skill and care is evident in the tower's construction, particularly in the tracery and the ornamental niches and panels of the stonework. The tower entrance is similar to the south porch (portico) of the church; it features the coats of arms of local families who contributed substantially to the project. These families include the Garneys, the Redes, and the Bowes.Fact|date=October 2007

The interior of St. Michael's was badly damaged by fire in 1586, but the tower was unaffected. [cite web |url=http://www.beccles.info/leisure/stmichaels3.asp#i5 |title=The Parish Church of St Michael the Archangel |accessdate=2007-10-23 |format= |work=Town guide to Beccles ]

Early in the eighteenth century, two clock faces were affixed to the north and south sides of the tower, and, a century later, another was added to the east side and all three were raised to a slightly higher level. At present the clock is run by electricity and controlled by computer, allowing the twice-yearly change between Greenwich Mean Time and British Summer Time to be made quickly. The tower bells sound on each quarter-hour and ring out the time on the hour, stopping at 8pm to allow town residents some peace and quiet during the night. [cite web |url=http://www.beccles.info/leisure/stmichaels6.asp#i5 |title=The Parish Church of St Michael the Archangel |accessdate=2007-10-23 |format= |work=Town guide to Beccles ]

Originally there was a ring of eight bells, but this was replaced, in 1762, by Lester & Packe of Whitechapel Bell Foundry, London, with a ring of ten bells. In 1909 all ten bells were completely restored by Taylors Eayre & Smith Ltd (Loughborough) and re-hung on a new steel frame. The ringing chamber is on the second level of the tower, and the belfry is on the fourth.

One of the most historically significant events associated with this church and bell tower is the wedding, in 1749, of Catherine Suckling and the Reverend Edmund Nelson, the parents of England's seafaring hero, Lord Horatio Nelson. [cite web |url=http://www.visit-lowestoft.co.uk/subpages_transparency/towns_subpages/beccles.htm |title=Beccles |accessdate=2007-10-23 |format= |work=Sunrise Coast ]

References