Towers and spires

One of the ways in which they made the churches splendid was by building a tower.  In Saxon times the towers were used as a place of refuge and defence in time of danger, and they also provided a good look-out to give warning of an attack.  But after the Norman Conquest they were built for God, and the great, square church tower was a reminder of the Christian Church herself standing resolute and foursquare against the forces of evil.

Many of the towers were built with spires, graceful fingers of stone pointing to heaven and so turning people’s minds to God.  It is, perhaps, the spire which, more than anything else, shows that the church is built for God and not for human beings.  For the spire, costly and difficult though it is to build, is useless to human beings.  It is a human gift to God.

The finest spires were erected in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the finest towers in the 15th, and together they form one of the greatest achievements of the medieval builders.  Some of them are from 100 feet to nearly 300 feet in height.