Longthorpe Tower

Longthorpe Tower stands three storeys high in the Longthorpe district of Peterborough, about three kilometres west of the city centre. Built early in the 14th century by Robert Thorpe, it began as an addition to an existing fortified manor house. Thorpe had risen to local wealth through Peterborough Abbey, and the tower served as a visible sign of his standing. The ground floor was designed as his private living space. Today the building is owned by English Heritage and protected as a Grade I listed monument. The tower is best known for its cycle of medieval murals painted around 1330. The scheme covers religious, moral and everyday scenes and is unusually complete for a provincial work. After the Reformation the paintings were covered with whitewash and remained hidden until the 1940s. Clive Rouse, the historian who studied them, wrote that no comparable set of such completeness and early date survives in England. The discovery ranks among the most important finds of English medieval art. Inside, visitors climb to each floor where the painted walls and ceilings unfold. The first floor shows a detailed Wheel of Five Senses surrounded by lively figures. Upstairs, biblical and allegorical scenes cover the walls in vivid colour. The tower sits in a quiet residential area, its stone walls rising beside modern houses. From the top floor there are distant views across the flat Cambridgeshire countryside.