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Two surprises among many may strike new visitors to East Anglia. One is the fact that the landscape is not particularly flat (least of all in Norfolk - beyond The Fens anyway - despite an off-hand pen stroke by one Noel Coward). The other is that tucked into folds or perched on ridges are many churches whose towers are round.

These round towers are almost entirely an East Anglian phenomenon; there are 172 in the region but barely a dozen in the rest of the country. Their shape is a product of the shortage of building stone in an area where soft glacial deposits almost completely obscure the rocks below. Apart from limited sandstone in north-west Norfolk, the nearest workable stone is in Northamptonshire and, back in the 10th and 11th centuries, transportation being what it was, - or wasn't - Saxon builders mostly had to make do with flint of which there was plenty.

The problem with flint is making quoins - or corners. The Saxons managed on the naves of their early towerless churches, sometimes adding field stones such as glacial erratics, conglomerate or even Roman bricks or tiles where they could be found, but towers, being higher, (if only slightly on the early models) presented special problems.

The answer was thick, rounded walls of flint and mortar, a technique which lasted in varying degrees of refinement until a few decades after the Conquest when the Normans had consolidated sufficiently to begin to bring limestone from Caen in Normandy - easier than getting it from the Midlands - and start a new line in square towers.

That, anyway, is the general theory although there have been many others giving round towers a non-ecclesiastical provenance and showing considerable imagination in the process.

One related them to ancient pagan cult circles. Another thought they were originally wells from which the soil had been washed away, in which case the scale of storm and tempest necessary to remove the soil from 172 widely scattered 'wells' would have been truly Biblical. Even then, the thickness of their walls - ranging from 75cm to 1.4m. - suggests over-specification for the mere drawing of water.

Yet another theory saw them as defensive structures against the Danes, built initially in glorious isolation, (and apparently with not a lot in the way of siege resisting facilities). But they were not very tall for that purpose. The early ones didn't rise above 35' - many had upward extensions added from the 13th century onwards - and anyway, since they are all now attached to churches, it would also mean that churches were subsequently added. In fact, many towers are flat on their eastern side to fit against the western wall of a pre-existing nave.

The likelihood is that the first towers were added to existing places of worship in a trend which began to take shape around 900AD and was accelerated by King Athelstan (924-939), first King of all England, who decreed in 937 that a bell tower be built 'on the land of every thegn'.

It is not entirely clear whether his edict was moved by religious rather than defence considerations. But the most comprehensive study of round tower churches, contained in the book, Round Tower Churches of South-east England by W J Goode,* attempts to date them all from their architectural characteristics and it suggests a veritable outbreak of round tower building at about that time.

If Bill Goode is correct, some 97 of East Anglia's round church towers were built in what he calls the middle Saxon period, 900-1000 AD, whereas only nine were built in the early Saxon period, 800-900, and a further 24 in the late Saxon period, 1000-1066.

Goode who has been studying the subject since the 1970s, set up the Round Tower Churches Society, a registered charity, in 1973 which publishes a quarterly magazine, organises occasional church visits and provides funds towards maintenance.

Even now, however, his views run counter to some which regard a majority of round towers as Norman, partly because many have Norman windows and arches.

But Goode's reasoning seems to be more closely argued. He says, for example, that Domesday records from 1086 show between 390 and 448 churches in Suffolk and 243 in Norfolk. The Normans could hardly have built a majority of those in the 20 years after their arrival; they would have been more interested in defence, consolidation and administration than church building, notwithstanding William's piety, (they didn't start on Norwich Cathedral until around the turn of the century).

That means that if those towers surviving today with Norman features are indeed Norman, an awful lot of tower building - and in many cases, rebuilding (but to what purpose?) - was done between 1086 and the advent of the Early English pointed arch which, as most historians agree, was replacing the Norman rounded arch by 1175. Goode's argument, based on wall thicknesses and materials, is that most round towers are of Saxon origin and had dressed stone Norman window and door openings inserted during repair and maintenance.

So what do perambulating visitors look for today by way of Saxon clues?

Well, they could start with the windows. Triangular headed openings, often double light, formed in the same flints as the walls are certainly Saxon originals.

So, probably, are round, double-splayed window openings which are sufficiently common that they were assumed to be Norman by some writers. Again Goode argues coherently for a Saxon origin. They were formed with two basket cones laid on the wall during construction with the small opening in the middle, as evidenced by the only two remaining examples which haven't been replastered, at Hales south-east of Norwich, where the basket work pattern is still visible.

Early Saxon tower walls, though relatively rare, are distinctive, with a surface containing whole flints of all shapes and sizes laid randomly in masses of mortar. East Lexham in west Norfolk is a prime example.

In later Saxon walls, flints are often coursed, sometimes in decorative bands with other materials such as conglomerate as at Roughton in north Norfolk. While that technique is difficult to distinguish from later refacing work, the Roughton tower has triangular headed and also round windows to confirm to Saxon vintage.

Flints which have been cut, however, indicate 13th century work or later, while knapped and squared flints are 15th century onwards.

As for the churches themselves, the earliest were very narrow with few Saxon naves being more than 20' wide; any widening of a Saxon nave, in the Norman period or later, was done by the addition of one or two aisles. Norman naves by contrast were hardly ever less than 20' wide.
But that is all detail. For many visitors, the charm of these churches is to see them in their entirety and in the context of the surrounding landscape. For there is a slight other-worldliness about some of them, sitting as many do in remote spots away from their villages, built in primitive yet durable fashion, some still thatched, some cared for, some semi-abandoned and left to the mercy of charities like the Norfolk Churches Trust or the Round Tower Churches Society itself.
Visitors might look at Fishley near Acle in Norfolk, sitting over a low rise among fields, half a mile from the road, its churchyard trees forming an isolated copse. Or they might try Barmer in north-west Norfolk, a little nearer to its road but somehow more lonely, up a cart track in a cluster of oaks and beeches but barely used these days.

Ashby in north-east Suffolk is not far from Lowestoft but, once through the farmyard and down the track beyond, the visitor is in a landscape which may not have changed much since that mid-Saxon church was built. See it in its summer lushness by all means, but go there on a wet winter day and sense that extra primeval dimension.

For scenic grandeur, Ramsholt in south-east Suffolk takes some beating, with sweeping views over the valley of the River Deben.

On another riverside, of the Wensum back in mid-Norfolk, Bylaugh sits prettily on an outcrop at the foot of a south facing slope despite the equally isolated and adjacent sewage farm.

Great Hautbois north of Norwich, five minutes down a footpath from the lane and near the River Bure, is derelict these days. The nave is roofless and the trees have closed in, but the headstones show relatively recent entries.

But just beware! Round tower church spotting is infectious. Touring and looking blank-faced at stumbled-upon ancient relics may be enough for some but it is easy to crack the code of Saxon features and then you are off, hunting like a twitcher for the oddities of the species. It could even take over your holiday, though that might be no bad thing for it would give you a slab of history to take back and digest slowly. And then, eventually, you would know that you had been not only to another place but another time.

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* Round Tower Churches of South East England by W J Goode is available from Edgar Spelman, Booksales and Publicity Department, Round Tower Churches Society, 105 Norwich Road, New Costessey, Norwich NR5 0LF, price £18.40 inc p&p. A booklet, East Anglian Round Tower Churches is also available, price £1.20 inc p&p.