St. Andrew's Church, Burnham-on-Sea

While walking around Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset one day last week I took this photo of the church tower.

No, it is not a trick of the camera. The tower really does lean. Compare it against the rooflines of buildings in the background.  There’s no risk of it falling though. At least, it’s remained firmly in place ever since it tilted over shortly after being built – almost seven hundred years ago.

Of course, comparisons have been drawn with “The Leaning Tower of Pisa”. It’s not quite so spectacular, the tilt being just under 2.5 degrees as against twice that in Pisa, but nevertheless St. Andrew’s church tower is quite remarkable – just one of several unusual features of Burnham.

I have for many years found it fascinating to look at the different kinds of traditional buildings in the Lake District, Since the 1970s I have often carried with me a copy of R. W. Brunskill’s paperback field handbook, Vernacular Architecture of the Lake Counties.

Another book that has been on my shelves for more than twenty-five years is Palmer’s Historic Farmhouses in and around Westmorland, which I find especially interesting as my own forebears at various times down the centuries have lived in two of the featured properties.

An early-1990s work is Susan Denyer’s Traditional Buildings & Life in the Lake District, and even more recent (2006) is Brunskill’s Traditional Buildings of Cumbria.

Three of these can be found on the secondhand network although the Palmer book is rare and pricey (try our book search page at BrunleaBooks for access to several large networks of independent dealers around the world) whereas the latest Brunskill book can be bought new from Foyles of London, and when I last looked there was a good discount.

- David Murray -
England’s Lakes