I am grateful to the Dean of Westminster, the Very Rev’d Dr John Hall, for inviting me to write this account of the history and archaeology of the lantern tower. It could not have been achieved without the generous collaboration of my colleagues at the Abbey: the support and encouragement provided by Sir Stephen Lamport, KCVO (Receiver General) has been invaluable; Dr Tony Trowles (Librarian and Head of the Collections) and Dr Richard Mortimer (Keeper of the Muniments) facilitated access to archives and artefacts for study; Miss Christine Reynolds (Assistant Keeper of the Muniments) was unstinting in her help with searching out and copying documents and illustrations; Clive Richardson (Structural Engineer) kindly shared the results of his investigations and discussed structural issues at length with me; similarly, John Burton (Surveyor of the Fabric) discussed architectural matters with me; and Jim Vincent (Clerk of the Works) provided practical assistance with access and investigation.
Tony Davies and Bill Mowatt of The Downland Partnership expeditiously carried out measured surveys of the crossing with their customary attention to detail, despite the awkward conditions, and Mrs Erica Utsi conducted ground-penetrating radar surveys (GPR) of the floors in the crossing and transepts. Rosie Daswani skilfully undertook the digital cleaning and enhancement of some of the images. Dr Richard Gem, OBE, kindly contributed the appendix to this study and made other helpful suggestions in the text. The manuscript additionally benefitted from the scrutiny of Drs Trowles and Mortimer and Miss Reynolds. For access and permission to study the painting of Westminster Abbey at Woodperry House, I am indebted to Rory Fleming. For further ideas and discussion I must acknowledge Tim Tatton-Brown, Diane Gibbs-Rodwell and Alan Rome, OBE. Finally, my thanks go to David Brown and his colleagues at Oxbow Books for producing this volume so expeditiously: in particular Julie Blackmore, Julie Gardiner and Val Lamb.
The majority of the illustrations are the property and copyright of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, including those generated by the author; items obtained from other sources are individually credited.