An intriguing feature of Leland’s description of Hull in the early 1540s is his reference to various ‘tours’ (towers and s.p.b.). The photo above of St. Mary, Lowgate shows a tower he would not have seen because this one wasn’t constructed until 1697 (the passageway through its ground floor section came later). At the time of Leland’s visit St. Mary’s had no tower, the medieval one having collapsed in 1518 (this fact also torpedoes a popular myth about a supposed west tower of St. Mary’s at the time of Henry VIII visit in 1541).
The lofty crossing tower of Holy Trinity church was there for Leland to see although the last part of its construction programme had only been completed a decade before. In a sentence comparing the two churches Leland writes ‘The Trinite Church most made of brike is the larger a gret deale and the fairer’.
Apart from the tower of the town hall which, it seems, functioned as a prison (s.p.b.s) the other towers in Hull mentioned by Leland were part of a private residence, clearly the more prestigious residences. He states that as well as the towers at Suffolk Palace three other properties owned by Michael De la Pole ‘hath a tour of brike’. These were clearly impressive features across the built environment of the town. Having a ready supply of bricks locally (s.p.b.s) made the building of towers feasible as brick walls could be vertical whereas timber -frame buildings with waddle and daub infill needed to be jettied to achieve more than one or two storeys. That said, the towers were unlikely to have been as lofty as medieval Italian campanile, perhaps having three to five storeys. Building a domestic brick tower must have been a very expensive option given the scaffolding and raw materials required. Thus their purpose is a matter of some speculation.
(to be continued).