How Lewis Nockalls Cottingham left his mark on Bury St Edmunds including Norman Tower House and Norman Tower Cottage
Born in 1787 at Laxfield, Suffolk, Lewis Nockalls Cottingham was apprenticed at an early age to a builder in Ipswich.
In 1810 he moved to London where his artistic talents were put to good use in a firm of surveyors and architects.
He started his own professional career, becoming architect to The Cooks Company in 1822.
His first major commission, in 1827, was to build Snelston Hall in Derbyshire in the Gothic style, a style which would be synonymous with his work for the rest of his life. Snelston Hall, part of a model village, was demolished in 1951.
Other important areas of work and restoration were at Rochester Cathedral, St Albans Abbey and Magdalen College Chapel, Oxford. He was also employed at several Suffolk churches, including Barrow and Horringer.
Augustus Pugin, a pioneer of the Gothic Revival style of architecture, was aware of him. This was because Lewis had published several drawings of Gothic ornamentation and had even set up a small museum in his house at Lambeth with a collection of pieces of medieval sculptured stonework, a catalogue of which survives.
In December 1842 Cottingham, employed by the St James Churchwardens, published a specification with 18 drawings; now sadly lost, detailing the calamitous condition of the 700 year old Norman Tower. Thomas Farrow, a fine Diss builder, was employed to effect repairs, Cottingham overseeing this work.
Cottingham also drew up plans for a permanent home for the Bury Trustees Savings Bank, which was founded in 1816 for small savers.
The demolition of cottages abutting the Norman Tower led to the building of this very iconic gothic revival build with its diapering, oriel window and stone dressings in 1846/7.
Incorporated in the brickwork are the Arms of Queen Victoria and the Borough Arms of Bury St Edmunds.
Above the doorway of Norman Tower cottage, at the rear, is some very fine stone carving with the initials of Thomas Farrow in the doorway spandrel.
This was the second phase of a three-phase build, the third part being in Crown Street, adjoining Savings Bank House, which is now split in two - Norman Tower House, in Crown Street, and Norman Tower Cottage, facing the Great Churchyard, a Blue Plaque to him by the Bury Society is here.
Sadly, Lewis died in October 1847 before completion of the development, but his son Nockalls completed the work. Amazingly there is no known image of Lewis.
- Martyn Taylor is a local historian, author and Bury Tour Guide. His latest book, Going Underground: Bury St Edmunds, is widely available.