St Albans' Clock Tower: Scheduled Ancient Monument
St Albans' Clock Tower is the only surviving medieval town belfry in England and is designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
The tower is opened to the pubic, but it’s 93 steps to reach the top!
The people of St Albans built the tower, which was completed by 1405 as a symbol of their resistance against the power of the abbot of St Albans.
The Tower allowed the town to sound its own hours and, until 1863, the curfew.
The Clock Tower's bell rang out for the first Battle of St Albans during the Wars of the Roses in 1455.
Today, the tower - and its 600 year old bell - still stands face to face with the abbey's tower and provides fantastic views across over St Albans and far into the Hertfordshire countryside.
The Clock Tower is 64 ft high and has five floors, including the roof.
Each floor is slightly narrower than the previous, with each floor being marked externally by a stone string.
The top floor of the Clock Tower doubles as its roof, which can be reached via a 93 step spiral staircase.
The tower was designed and built by Thomas Wolvey a former Royal Mason, and it is believed it was built as a protest against the power of St Albans Abbey.
The belief is that the local merchants were in favour of the Tower being built, as it meant their hours would no longer be decided by those at the Abbey, who had a clock and peal of bells of their own.
The location of the Tower was also part of this protest; the Clock Tower looks 'face to face' with the Abbey, but sits on higher ground.
It is unknown if the Tower had a clock-face from its inception, however, it is known that there was one in place by 1485.
During the Napoleonic Wars the Clock Tower's height was an advantage and the roof was used as a semaphore station.
The shutter telegraph style semaphore was part of the 16 station London to Great Yarmouth line, along which a message could be sent within 5 minutes.
The semaphore station itself was built atop a small wooden observation hut which was erected on the roof.
In 1858, the living quarters at the base of the Tower were destroyed, which in turn meant that the rest of tower fell into a state of disrepair.
Five years later in 1863, a proposal was made to demolish the entire structure.
A year later, Sir Gilbert Scott was commissioned to produce a report on the state of the Tower, and its estimated cost of restoration.
Scott would state that the building could be restored at a cost of approximately £700.
The final cost of the repairs, however, was £1000. The restoration was completed in 1866, with almost all of the external masonry work being renewed.
Further features such as Gargoyles, new windows and a new clock mechanism were installed.
Initial plans for a spire on top of the Tower did not come to fruition, instead, a capped turret was installed.
Historically, the ground floor of the tower was used a shop, with the first floor being reserved as the shopkeeper's housing. This was the case until roughly 1900.
The second floor was the clock keepers living quarters, with the third floor housing the clock and related mechanism. The fourth floor houses the bells.
Today, the Clock Tower is owned and operated by St Albans District Council.
The Clock Tower is open on weekends and bank holidays between Good Friday and the end of September.
It also open under the Heritage Open Days scheme and is sometimes open during special occasions such as the turning on of the St Albans Christmas lights.
The Tower is opened by a group of volunteers from the St Albans Civic Society and The St Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural & Archaeological Society.
Someone who recently visited the structure said: “A lovely, vibrant area focussed on a charming old clock tower.
“There's a fair bit of history here and while we've visited before what caught our eye this time was the plaque re Queen Eleanor, given that a friend of ours has just discovered she is a descendant of the famous early proto-feminist!”
Another person added: “Mrs C and I paid our pounds (bargain) and clambered up the steep narrow stairs, past the bell and the clock mechanism and then to the top.
”Shame it wasn't sunny but even so, what wonderful views over the rooftops of this lovely city.
”Nice friendly people downstairs, very chatty and pleasant, and don't miss the opportunity to climb these stairs to great views.”
If you’d like to visit, the address is: High St, St Albans AL3 4EL.
If you enjoyed this blog post, please follow Exploring GB on Facebook for daily travel content and inspiration.
Don’t forget to check out our latest blog posts below!
Thank you for visiting Exploring GB.
