Longthorpe Tower | |
---|---|
Longthorpe, England | |
Coordinates | 52°34′15″N0°17′13″W / 52.5708°N 0.2869°W |
Grid reference | grid reference TL16209838 |
Type | Tower |
Site information | |
Owner | English Heritage |
Open to the public | Yes |
Condition | Intact |
Site history | |
Materials | Stone |
Longthorpe Tower is a 14th-century three-storey tower in the Longthorpe area of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. It is famous for its well-preserved set of medieval murals.
Longthorpe tower is located in the village of Longthorpe, now a residential area of Peterborough in the United Kingdom, about two miles (3 km) to the west of the city centre. At the start of the 14th century, Robert Thorpe built the tower as an extension to an existing fortified manor house.
Thorpe had worked his way to relative wealth through the local Peterborough Abbey, and the tower may have been something of a status symbol. [1]
The tower has three stories, and the first floor was originally designed as a living space for Thorpe. [2]
The tower is best known for its English medieval wall paintings, carried out around 1330. [3] The paintings show religious, secular and moral themes and the quality is comparatively good for a provincial work. [4] The paintings were whitewashed over around the time of the Reformation and remained hidden until their rediscovery in the 1940s. [5] Historian Clive Rouse considers that "no comparable scheme...of such completeness and of such early date exists in England". [6]
The property is now owned by English Heritage and is a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Monument protected by law. [7]
Kenilworth Castle is a castle in the town of Kenilworth in Warwickshire, England, managed by English Heritage; much of it is still in ruins. The castle was founded during the Norman conquest of England; with development through to the Tudor period. It has been described by the architectural historian Anthony Emery as "the finest surviving example of a semi-royal palace of the later middle ages, significant for its scale, form and quality of workmanship".
Thorpe Hall at Longthorpe in the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, is a Grade I listed building, built by Peter Mills between 1653 and 1656, for the Lord Chief Justice, Oliver St John. The house is unusual in being one of the very few mansions built during the Commonwealth period. After a period as a hospital, it is currently used as a Sue Ryder Care hospice.
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Media related to Longthorpe Tower at Wikimedia Commons