Chesterton Tower
A complete fourteenth-century dwelling in Chesterton, built for the agents of an Italian abbey.
Chesterton Tower is a medieval house, listed Grade I, on Chapel Street in Chesterton, in the old vicarage garden next to St Andrew's Church. It dates from the fourteenth century and has two storeys. The walls are field stones, clunch and brick, with cut-stone corners. Rather than a fragment of a bigger complex, it is a whole dwelling: rooms with vaulted ceilings, a spiral stair and a garderobe (a medieval toilet). Downstairs, two vaulted bays have chamfered ribs and carved bosses.
Who lived here
The story begins in 1217, when Henry III gave the church at Chesterton to the papal legate Cardinal Guala, who passed the property on to the abbey at Vercelli in Italy. The abbey's representative, a procurator thought to have been one of its canons, lived in the tower and looked after the foreign owners' interests. The vicarage itself is thought to have stood apart. Henry VI gave the buildings to King's Hall in 1440, which later became part of Henry VIII's Trinity College, so the tower has long since passed through college hands. Restoration work finished in 1949.
The sources describe it as an uncommon survivor of a mid-fourteenth-century dwelling, which is a good reason to look it up if you are exploring Chesterton.
Practical notes
Public access arrangements are not covered by the sources used here, so check locally before making a special trip.