because of the age of the somerset towers, there are few records showing exactly when and by whom they were built. but for more than a century, experts have studied and classified the somerset towers. edward augustus freeman proposed a classification of the towers in 1851-1852, with dr. f.j. allen and r. p. brereton offering new classifications in 1904. wickham, who spent time as the vicar of martock and later at east brent, writing in 1952, accepted much of the classification scheme set out in earlier works, based on age and the arrangement of the windows. he argued, however, that the north somerset group had been wrongly classified. based on an early attempt to bring computer analysis to the study of the towers, poyntz wright in 1981 published a taxonomy of the towers to tease out patterns reflecting the chronology and teams of builders behind their construction. based on details such as the numbers and arrangement of windows; presence, arrangement and decoration of pinnacles and merlons; and arrangement, location, and styling of buttresses, he described and proposed rough dates for "generations" of somerset towers. for example, poyntz wright proposed "the churchill generation" as an early group including churches at churchill, compton martin, and compton bishop. these churches were clustered based on traits such as having smaller towers with a single window in each face of the top stage; a pierced top parapet without merlons and four square-set corner pinnacles above.