Longthorpe Tower is a 14th-century three-storey tower in the village of
Longthorpe, famous for its well-preserved set of medieval
mural
A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage.
Word mural in art
The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...
s.
Details
Longthorpe tower is located in the village of
Longthorpe, now a residential area of
Peterborough
Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, about two miles (3 km) to the west of the city centre. At the start of the 14th century, Robert Thorpe built the tower as an extension to an existing fortified
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
.
Thorpe had worked his way to relative wealth through the local
Peterborough Abbey
Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Pau ...
, and the tower may have been something of a status symbol.
The tower has three stories, and the first floor was originally designed as living space for Thorpe.
The tower is best known for its English medieval wall paintings, carried out around 1330. The paintings show religious, secular and moral themes and the quality is comparatively good for a provincial work. The paintings were
whitewash
Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime (calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk calcium carbonate, (CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes used.
...
ed over around the time of
the Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
and remained hidden until their rediscovery in the 1940s. Historian Clive Rouse considers that "no comparable scheme...of such completeness and of such early date exists in England".
The property is now owned by
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
and is a Grade I
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
and a
Scheduled Monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
protected by law.
See also
*
Castles in Great Britain and Ireland
Castles have played an important military, economic and social role in Great Britain and Ireland since their introduction following the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Although a small number of castles had been built in England in the 1050 ...
*
List of castles in England
This list of castles in England is not a list of every building and site that has "castle" as part of its name, nor does it list only buildings that conform to a strict definition of a castle as a medieval fortified residence. It is not a li ...
*
Thorpe Hall
References
Bibliography
*Emery, Anthony. (2006)
Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300–1500: Southern England.' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
*Pettifer, Adrian. (2002)
English Castles: a Guide by Counties'' Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. .
*Pounds, Norman John Greville. (1994)
The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: a social and political history.' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
Further reading
Books
*Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles of East Anglia (Malvern) p. 21
*Taylor, Alison, 1986, Castles of Cambridgeshire (Cambridge)
*King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 pp. 319–20
*Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p. 256
*Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1961, Buildings of England: Northamptonshire (Penguin) pp. 284–5
*Downman, E.A., 1906, in Serjeantson, R.M., Ryland, W. and Adkins, D. (eds), VCH Northampton Vol. 2 pp. 456–7, 459
*
Turner, T. H., 1851, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 1 p. 153
Journal articles
*Casagrande, Gino and Kleinhenz, Christopher, 1985, 'Literary and Philosophical Perspectives on the Wheel of the Five Senses in Longthorpe Tower' Traditio Vol. 41 p. 311-27
*
letcher Letcher may refer to:
Places
* Letcher, South Dakota
*Letcher County, Kentucky
People
*Chris Letcher, South African singer/songwriter
* Cliff Letcher (born 1952), Australian professional tennis player
*John Letcher, American lawyer and politicia ...
1969, Medieval Archaeology Vol. 13 p. 273
*Rouse, E.Clive and Baker, Audley, 1955, 'The wall-paintings at Longthorpe Tower' Archaeologia Vol. 96 pp. 1–57
*Country Life Vol. 101 p. 604
*Yun, Bee, 2007, 'A Visual Mirror of Princes: The Wheel on the Mural of Longthorpe Tower' Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes Vol. 70 pp. 1–32
Guidebooks
*2001, Longthorpe Tower Cambridgeshire (English Heritage)
*Rouse, E.Clive, 1949 and 1987, Longthorpe Tower (HMSO)
External links
English Heritage site
{{Authority control
Towers in Cambridgeshire
Buildings and structures in Peterborough
Country houses in Cambridgeshire
English Heritage sites in Cambridgeshire
Scheduled monuments in Cambridgeshire
Grade I listed buildings in Peterborough
Grade I listed buildings in Cambridgeshire