- Magdalen Tower
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For the landmark in County Louth, see Magdalen Tower (Ireland).
Magdalen Great Tower, as seen from the nearby Founders Tower.
Magdalen Great Tower, as seen from the High Street, almost directly below.
The Magdalen Great Tower, as seen from the Botanic Gardens.
Magdalen Tower in the Oxford skyline, seen from Magdalen Bridge
Magdalen TowerLocation of Magdalen Tower within central Oxford
The Magdalen Great Tower and Merton College from across the Christ Church Meadows.Magdalen Great Tower is a bell tower in Oxford, England. It is one of the oldest parts of Magdalen College, Oxford, situated directly in the High Street. Built of stone from 1492, when the foundation stone was laid,[1] its bells hung ready for use in 1505, and completed by 1509, it is an important element of the Oxford skyline. At 144 feet (44 m) high to the top of its pinnacles, it is the tallest building in Oxford. It dominates the eastern entrance to the city, towering over Magdalen Bridge and with good views from the Botanic Garden opposite.
The tower, joined to the south range of college buildings, is built in four storeys unequal in height. Octagonal turrets encase the corners; the slightly larger northwest turret encloses the spiral stair, lit by slit windows (illustration, right). The basement is windowless; the second and third stages have small windows in three sides; the fourth, principal storey is loftier, with a double window on each face divided by a buttress rising through the panelled frieze and mock battlements, where it is surmounted by a figure in a niche crowned by a pinnacle slightly smaller that the four pinnacles that crown the corners.
The tower contains a peal of ten bells hung for English change ringing. They were cast at a number of different foundries and the heaviest, weighing 19 cwt, was cast in 1623. The bells are rung on many occasions during the year by the Oxford Society of Change Ringers at the invitation of the college. Such occasions include significant royal and college anniversaries, and after some religious ceremonies in the College Chapel.
Every 1 May, at 6am in the morning, the choir of the college (including boy choristers from nearby Magdalen College School) sings two traditional hymns — the Hymnus Eucharisticus and "Now Is the Month of Maying" — to start the May Morning celebrations in Oxford. Large crowds gather in the High Street and on Magdalen Bridge below to listen, before dispersing for other activities such as Morris Dancing.[2]
Extensive restoration to the stone facing of the tower was undertaken in the 1970s since pollution had badly degraded the surface.
Contents
See also
Notes
- ^ The foundation stone was laid by Dr. Mayew, President, 9 August 1492 (John Chessell Buckler, Observations on the Original Architecture of Saint Mary Magdalen College, Oxford, 1823:29).
- ^ The ceremony is the subject of William Holman Hunt's May Morning on Magdalene Tower, 1891.
References
- Jennifer Sherwood and Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.
External links
- Magdalen Tower and the Hymnus Eucharisticus
- Photograph by Jim Batty
- Magdalen College Tower photograph
- May Morning, Magdalen Tower by William Holman Hunt (1890)
- Oxford's May Morning from the BBC, 2003
Categories:- Magdalen College, Oxford
- Towers in Oxford
- Bell towers
- Visitor attractions in Oxford
- Buildings and structures completed in 1509
- Buildings and structures of the University of Oxford
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