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THE ESSEX NATURALIST
to be tied-in and cross-bonded. Indeed, it has been argued by
Messent1 that the reason why the great majority of English round
towers are to be found in East Anglia is just this local scarcity of
large building-stones, which he suggests, had they been available,
would have led to square towers instead. But, against this, it may
fairly be claimed that in other localities where there is an ample
supply of large stone, for example, in Sardinia and Scotland,
towers for defence were still built of circular section.
It has been suggested that the edict of King Athelstan in the
year 937, compelling the erection of bell-towers on the estates of
every Thegn, may have been responsible for the hurried building
of some round towers, since the free-stone needed to build square
towers could not have been obtained in time to comply with the
law, in such districts as East Anglia. But I know of no evidence
that the bell-towers required by King Athelstan were ordered to
be built in masonry, to the exclusion, for example, of timber. This
suggestion seems a possible, but not very likely, explanation of a
few such towers, but cannot claim wide, or general, validity.
Consider the distribution map (Fig. 2) of ancient round towers
in Eastern England. There are about 180 Round Towers associated
with churches in England and all but six are in this area. Of the
174 in Eastern England, Norfolk has 124 ( + 6), Suffolk 42 ( + 3),
Cambridge 2 ( + 1) and Essex 6 ( + 2). (The additional numbers in
brackets are those of sites where known round towers no longer
exist).
Of the remaining six, three are in Sussex, and all the named
counties received the brunt of the Danish raiders, in the 9th, 10th,
11th and into the 12th centuries. Moreover, by far the greater
number are either on the coast or along the navigable river
valleys; that is, navigable 1000 years ago.
In Essex, there are at present Round Towers attached to the
Parish Churches of Bardfield Saling, Broomfield, Lamarsh, Great
Leighs, South Ockenden, and Pentlow: there are records of two
others not now extant (at Arkesden, near Saffron Walden, and
Birchanger, near Bishops Stortford). All of them adjoin the
churches which they now serve but not all are bonded structurally
thereto: the churches appear to have been built against the
towers. According to the Historical Monuments Commission Re-
port on Essex2, the round towers are dated as shown in the
following table, but readers of the Commission's text will see that
in the cases of at least three (Pentlow, Sth. Ockendon and Bard-
field Saling) the dating of the towers is made to depend on features
which are clearly later additions. Also, an ancient (perhaps
Saxon) round tower in ruinous condition may well have been so
extensively repaired and rebuilt with new features that the original
foundation is obscured: furthermore, it is often impossible to
decide which is the earlier of two contiguous but unbonded
structures, when both are plastered inside and out.