page_title: St Botolph's Church, Boston
section_title: Name
hierarchical_section_title: St Botolph's Church, Boston / Name
caption_attribution_description: English: "Boston Church, Lincolnshire," by James Harrison (1814-1866), watercolour and pen and brown ink on laid paper. Dated 1821. 8 1/2 in. x 7 in. (21.6 cm x 17.8 cm). Courtesy of the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
context_page_description: St Botolph's Church is a parish church in the Church of England in Boston, Lincolnshire. Its tower, 266 feet 9 inches tall, has been nicknamed the "Boston Stump" since its construction. It was long used as a landmark for sailors, and on a clear day can be seen from Norfolk.
context_section_description: The official title of the church is "St Botolph's Church of the Parish of Boston", but it is more commonly known as the "Boston Stump", and more simply by locals "the Stump" ever since it was completed. In what is still a matter of debate, there are a number of believed origins of this nickname that at first applied to the tower and is now frequently used to describe the whole church. What is certain is the real roots have long since faded from memory.
  The first is that the tower took so long to build it resembled a stump during the construction phase. Seventy years was not, however, a particularly long time for a tower of such height to be built. Many similarly tall structures would be built a level at a time over hundreds of years.
  Secondly, it was intended to be completed with a spire. This seems unlikely, as there has not been a single recorded lantern tower in England that has been topped with a spire. It is possible that a spire was originally intended to rest on the first phase of the tower. It would have looked rather like St James' Church, Louth.
  The third explanation is that it is named after the dramatic appearance it creates rising from the flat fenlands that surround it for miles. Other churches, including Ely Cathedral, also derive nicknames from their appearance when viewed from the Fens.
caption: Boston Church, Lincolnshire. Watercolour by James Harrison, 1821. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut.
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