Gundulfs Tower, Rochester Cathedral

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Gundulph's Tower

In the civil parish of Rochester. In the historic county of Kent (Modern Authority of Medway, 1974 county of Kent).

Small defensible keep or tower next to Rochester Cathedral. This was formally detached from the nave. Gundulf's Tower, alongside the early cathedral at Rochester, has been recently argued to be a strong, defensible tower. Recent excavation suggests a building date close to 1100. It has similarities with St Leonard's Tower, West Malling, also on an episcopal estate. Both these three-storey towers are strongly built. They have windows at a high level, but there is little to indicate high-status accommodation internally; only St Leonard's Tower has external arcading on two faces, which points to an element of public display. This form of defensive structure has similarities with two strong towers at Oxford: the late-Saxon St Michael's Tower, beside a gate through the town defences, and St George's Tower, within the confines of the Norman castle. Renn suggests this was just a bell tower.
Between the two cross isles, on the north side without the church, stands an old ruined tower, no higher than the roof of the church. This is generally allowed to have been erected by bishop Gundulph, and there is a tradition of its having been called the bell tower, and of its having had five bells hanging in it; yet the better conjecture is, that it was first intended as a place of strength and security, either as a treasury or a repository for records. The walls of it are six feet thick, and the area on the inside twenty-four feet square. (Hasted)

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is TQ74266852

Air Photo from Air Photo and general mapping	1st edition OS Map from Mid to late 19th century maps
Modern Map from Landscape form and features	Modern Map from General location and route planning
Geograph British Isles occasionally has photos of the site and will usually give an idea of the surrounding landscape.

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 416281
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is TQ 76 NW 310 'grey' literature, such as watching brief reports, held by H.E.R.s is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded in this website.

• Books
  • Worssam, B.C. with an appendix by Ashbee, J., 2006, 'The building stones of Rochester Castle and Cathedral' in Ayers, T. and Tatton-Brown, T. (eds), Medieval art, architecture and archaeology at Rochester (Leeds: British Archaeological Association and Maney Publishing) p238-49
    Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p126
    Guy, John, 1980, Kent Castles (Meresborough Books)
    Newman, John, 1976, The buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald (Harmondsworth) p473
    Renn, D.F., 1973 (2edn), Norman Castles of Britain (John Baker)
    Knowles, David and Hadcock, R Neville, 1971, Medieval religious houses in England and Wales (Longman) p74, 435, 480
    Page, Wm (ed), 1926, VCH Kent Vol2 p121-6
    Palmer, G.H., 1897, The Cathedral Church of Rochester (Bell's Cathedral Series)
    Hasted, Edward, 1798 (2edn), A History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent Vol7 p86- http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53799
• Journal Articles
  • McAleer, J.Philip, 1998, 'The So-Called Gundulf's Tower at Rochester Cathedral. A Reconsideration of its History, Date and Function' Antiquaries Journal Vol78 p111-176
    McAleer, J.Philip, 1993, ‘ Rochester Cathedral: The north choir aisle and the space between it and 'Gundulf's' Tower’, Archaeologia Cantiana Vol112 p127-166