Wednesday 22 September 2010

ABC Wednesday J is for Jezreel's Tower

Jezreel's Tower
Image courtesy of Martin Smith
Jezreel’s Tower, near the top of Chatham Hill in the south-east corner of Kent, UK, was the largest religious building ever to have been built in Britain. Sometimes known as Jezreel’s Folly, it was designed by James Jershom Jezreel, formerly James White. It was to be the headquarters of his sect and a sanctuary from the Last Judgment.
James White enlisted in the British Army in 1875 and was based in Chatham, where he soon became interested in the teaching of Joanna Southcott, a seer and prophet. She wrote prophecies in rhyme and announced that she was the woman spoken of in Revelation 12: 1-6
 v.1: And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
Her most startling claim was that she was to give birth to the new Messiah, Shiloh.

White joined a Southcottian sect of Christian Israelites and soon took over the leadership. He wrote ‘The Flying Roll’, a message to the scattered tribes of Israel, a favoured 144,000 of whom would achieve true immortality.
In 1881 White was discharged from the army and began to expand his following, finding sympathisers in the USA and Australia as well as locally. He established several businesses including a print firm, a bakery and a grocery store and invested the profits from these and money that had been donated. By the end of 1884, Jezreel decided that work could start on his Sanctuary.
Architect's drawing - provenance unknown
It was to be constructed of steel and concrete with yellow brick walls and eight castellated towers. He had wished to build a perfect cube but was persuaded that such a design would be technically difficult and prohibitively expensive. The walls were to be decorated with symbols of Jezreel’s sect, featuring the Flying Roll, the Trumpet (he considered himself to be the Sixth Trumpeter to sound the alarm, following Richard Brothers, Joanna Southcott, George Turner, William Shaw and John Wroe), the Crossed Swords of the Spirit and Prince of Wales feathers to signify the Holy Trinity.
Building began in 1886 and was proceeding well when Jezreel died, quite unexpectedly. His wife, who styled herself Queen Esther, took over the project and by 1887 the exterior of the tower was complete apart from the roof. The ground floor was finished and furnished with steam printing presses that were producing the sect’s publications. On the first floor many steel girders were in place ready to construct the hall, which was intended to hold 5,000, balconies, hydraulic choirs and a revolving platform for the preacher.
The money ran out in March 1888 and work ceased. Jezreel’s huge tower lay surrounded by scaffolding, roofless and open to the elements. Queen Esther died in June of 1888 and without her leadership the sect split and eventually lost ownership of the tower. In 1905 demolition was begun but the building was so strongly constructed that it proved impossible to destroy. It remained as a monument to man’s folly and vanity for more than fifty years but eventually, following the local council’s refusal to adopt it as an historical relic, it was scheduled for demolition in 1960.The job was expected to take three months but took thirteen – the tower built to last was finally reduced to rubble and the landmark beloved of many and seen from as far away as fifteen miles was gone.  
All that remains now is a bus stop called Jezreel. When I used to catch the bus from school there was sometimes talk of the curse of Jezreel’s. It was said that those called to work on the demolition would suffer injury or death. Indeed, one company was put out of business and one demolition worker was killed. Strangely, I can’t remember ever seeing the Tower, but I suppose I must have done so. Barry recalls it quite clearly.
Thanks go to Denise Nesbitt and her Jolly, Jovial team members who organise and host this weekly meme. To see more Js please click here.

18 comments:

  1. What a fascinating story! I wonder why the council was hell bent on destroying a perfectly good building? Couldn't it be converted into something useful?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bonjour dear friend,
    Your post is so well elaborated, so interesting information about this "Jezreel Tower", with so many J references here, very well done.I imagine you had lots of work to do this post, thanks so much!I'm always learning with blog friends and I feel my heart very fortunate for that! :)
    I'm also now very interesting in the work of Joanna Southcott, I will search more about her.
    *little Luna is sending you purrs and lots of love!
    hugs and a happy day there
    Léia

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am singularly fascinated by stories of Revelation. People think the Second Coming is just arouund the corner, when nobody really knows. As Jesus said, "No one knows the day or time..."
    This is a great story and I'd suggest that she award you for this story except she just picked you for LAST week's post. GOOD stuff.

    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm sad it didn't withstand the preservation test. Looks like interesting architecture. I think I would like to style myself a queen...how does one do that and get away with it? :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. this was so interesting to read, thanks
    the architect's drawing is lovely

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fascinating post for the J Day, Janice! Such an interesting building and history. Too bad it didn't survive! I, too, learn so much from blogs by people like you and that is one of the big pluses in blogging! Hope your week is going well!

    Sylvia

    ReplyDelete
  7. Amazing that a building should be so difficult to demolish.

    Kay
    Alberta, Canada

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm sorry the tower was demolished as its history is interesting. I wonder how many sects were started in the nineteenth century and how many of them have survived into the twenty-first. Hmmm.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very nice J post. Thanks for the information about the tower. :)

    -
    http://unpredictableblog.wordpress.com/
    http://snowleopardshoots.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thank you for sharing this interesting story. It's a sad one of delusions of grandeur. (Some are so clever and convincing that they escape the psychiatric hospital!)

    ReplyDelete
  11. As it is said "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans".
    Great story. Hydraulic choirs and a revolving preacher platform. Would the heavenly throng need that sort of thing, I don't think he thought it through, LOL.
    Councils are always good at knocking things down, it must have looked amazing on the skyline.

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a wonderful tale of vanity and pride, huh? And a folly indeed .. a pity it was demolished. You'd think that something so well built could have been finished and put to use?

    I bet future generations will puzzle over why that bus stop is called 'Jezreel'!

    On behalf of the team, thanks for taking part in ABC Wednesday this week! :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wow, some fascinating history there - an impressive building, no doubt of that!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a wonderful story! Thanks for sharing it!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Very interesting and well written! Amazing isn't it how sects grow from delusion then some die out but others grow to be major religions... Mmmm!

    ReplyDelete
  16. What a fascinating account! I'd never heard of James Jezreel before.

    ReplyDelete
  17. wow! awesome...thanks for sharing....:)

    came from ABC Wednesday....thanks for the visit!

    ReplyDelete



Thank you for visiting. I love to read your comments and really appreciate you taking the time to respond to posts.

I will always try to repay your visit whenever possible.