juxtapositioned as it is, overlooked by modern, luxury housing and the recent riverside development, the medieval Cow Tower, in the heart of Norwich, is a poinient reminder of the city's long history. standing sentanal in a bend of the river Wensum, in the North East corner of a low-lieing meddow, the tower, today, a ruin, is a haunting and awe-inspiring landmark who's history dates back to 1398 and before.

originally the toll house for a monastery founded in 1249, It was ruinous by 1378, when the master of the Great Hospital
conveyed it by the name of the 'Great Tower called the Dungeon' to the city for ever.
Documentary evidence of the building costs of the tower dates its current, defensive form to 1398 - 1399. There is some confusion, however, regarding the earlier tower on the site; variously refered to as dungeon tower, or hospital tower. It is unclear whether cow tower is on the exact site of this older tower; evidence supporting this idea suggests the lower courses of the current towers walls, are indeed that of the earlier tower. Alternatively, due to the difference in the amount of bricks, used in constructing Cow Tower, and those for which purchase ledges exist in the building records, could indicate re-use of the earlier tower's bricks and perhaps other matterials, in the building of the defencive Cow Tower.

So, they kept cows in towers during the medeavial period?

Well, possibly, but most probably not. The tower (or one very close by on the same piece of land), has had at least three names over its life; Hospital tower and dungeon tower, both seem to have mainly refered to an earlier tower on the site, whilst the term cow tower, seems to be first mentioned in building reports of the 1398 to 1399 build/rebuild. It seems likely that the origin of the tower's name is derived from the surrounding meadow, previously known as Cowholme. However, and quite possibly just a coincidence, in the more recent history of the tower, cows have indeed grazed in the surrounding fields.

Structure and design of the tower

The circular Tower is One of the earliest purpose-built artillery blockhouses in England. Indeed, Cow tower is said to be more simular to detached forts found in France than it is to towers in Southampton and Canterbury, both of which were linked to existing wall circuits *

Cow tower is 48 Foot in height (14.6 m), 37 ft (11.2 m) in
diameter, tapering as it rises, with
walling 6 ft (1.8 m) thick at the base. there is an integrated, projecting semi-circular turret containing a spiral stair on its south west side. In its ruined form, however, the roof, and upper floors no longer remain, and the tower is effectively an empty shell.

The walls of the tower are built with a core of mortared flint rubble, faced internally and externally with brick, with external
stone dressings. at the base of the tower, on the external surface, are three to four courses of squared, knapped flint with flint chips set in mortar (galetting ) above
a moulded stone plinth on a footing faced with alternating courses of flint and brick. A sequence of putlogs (sockets to support the horizontal members
of timber scaffolding) is visible on the inner and outer faces of the wall.

adjacent to the stair turret, on the west side, is the enterence to the ground floor of the tower. Compriseing an external door opening with pointed arch and stone surround, which leads to a small brick vaulted lobby contained within
the thickness of the wall.
On the right (south) side of the lobby is the arched
door opening to another small lobby at the foot of the stair turret. The turret, which has an internal diameter of up to 2.7m, partly resides within the thickness
of the wall itself, is lit at different levels by four small, internally splayed window openings, three on the south west side and one, the topmost, facing
south east. The stair within, which gave access to the upper floors and roof, is reported to have still been complete in 1809, still survives to first
floor level. It is constructed with brick treads around a spiral post of limestone. The landings off the stair and arched door openings to the tower remain
intact at first and second floor level.

The ground floor, which was probably vaulted above, is lit by a single, internally splayed, arched window on the south side and includes a fireplace on the north west side, adjacent to the enterence. A series of six large, arched sockets, some with angled bases, spaced
at different heights around the walls, with diagonal chases in the brickwork outlining triangular arches of varying width above and between the sockets, are thought to indicate that the room was vaulted.
It is thought that the sockets supported timbers which formed the ribs of the outer pitch of the vault, and that the chases took the
wall arches of the vault. The timbers would have supported a brick infill. A central column will have been required to carry the radiating inner ribs of
such a vault, but no evidence of this survives above floor level, it is possible, though, that evidence for it survives below ground. Three other small
recesses in the wall are thought to be niches to hold lamps.

On the first floor the wall is pierced by seven internally splayed openings set within recesses with splayed arches. Five of the openings are set with
cruciform loops in stone, in a sixth the loop is missing, and the seventh, to the north of the door opening on to the stair turret, is a small arched window.
On the east side is a door opening to a narrower, tunnel arched recess containing a latrine with a smaller loop in the wall behind. The setting
for the seat of the latrine remains largely intact, above a rectangular chute lined with brick in the thickness of the wall, and there is a lamp niche in the north wall alongside.

The floor level of the storey above is marked by an offset in the wall, with rectangular sockets for three north-south joists immediately below. Above
this there are seven recessed openings, arranged in similar fashion to those on the first floor, but more closely spaced. As on the first floor, the opening
to the north of the door to the stair turret has the character of a small window; the remainder were probably furnished originally with cruciform loops
in stone, although only two, on the north east and south east side, retain these features. On the north side there is a second latrene , very similar
to the one on the floor below, and on the south side, a fireplace, smaller than that on the ground floor. In the wall above these features are the remains
of a brick string course which runs below the sockets for south west-north east joists to support a timber roof below the battlements.

Function of the tower

The cruciform loops on the first and second floor would have been used for firing small guns, and larger guns could have been mounted on the roof platform, to fire through the embrasures in the parapet.