St Albans Clock Tower

Having navigated my way through the centre of St Albans, which, incidentally, has the worst traffic management system I have ever come across, I parked the car and headed for the cathedral. On the way I passed the medieval clock tower which I mistook for the remnants of a disused church. Strictly speaking it does not fall within the remit of this blog but I include it for interest.

The centre of medieval St Albans was the CLOCK TOWER, one of the rare survivals of an English belfry. It was built in 1403—12 and is of four stages, unbuttressed, with one-light pointed and cusped windows in straightheaded frames. Near the Clock Tower was the Eleanor Cross to commemorate the resting place of Queen Eleanor’s dead body the night before it was conveyed to Waltham (q.v.). The Cross was pulled down in 1703 and a Market Cross built instead. This in its turn was replaced by the FOUNTAIN by Worley in 1874.

The four-storeyed Clock Tower facing the High Street is one of our few medieval belfries; it was built early in the 15th century and restored in the 19th, and the city clock now strikes the hour on a bell which is older than the tower itself, a curfew bell cast 600 years ago. It weighs a ton and on it is the Latin inscription, I have the name of Gabriel sent from Heaven. It used to ring at four in the morning to summon apprentices to work, and at eight in the evening to close the market and the shops. Till 1702 an Eleanor’s Cross stood in front of the tower, for Edward’s queen passed this way on her last journey to Westminster, resting for a night in the abbey church.

Flickr.