Grid Reference:-
151/292366
Postcode:
CV36 5HS
Bell Audio:-
Hear the bells as a ring of 5
Guild Affiliation:-
Coventry DG
Peals Rung Here:-
Felstead Database
Sunday Ringing:-
1000 - 1030 (2 & 4)
Practice Night:-
Monday
1930 - 2100
History Of The Bells
A church very much at the south end of the Diocese. The church here is largely of C13th date, with chancel, nave, north aisle and west tower. It is notable for its fine C14 tomb of a franklin and for the decorative and heraldic glass assembled by a C18 Rector. The main Victorian restoration in 1876-7 was carried out under the superintendence of a local builder, James Pickering of Cherington, without the employment of an architect. They are a ground floor ring and the entrance is through the North Porch door into the church. Until recently they were not the easiest set of bells to ring, being an old fashioned ring of 5.
There were 3 bells up 1842. The tenor was recast and two trebles were added by Taylors at a cost of £105. It is thought that the previous tenor was also a Bagley bell of 1742. The treble was cast with a defect in its crown which was rectified via the use of iron plates around the canons and inside the bell. Only the third had been tuned at this point. The cost of hanging in 1842, by the local carpenters Thomas and William Attwood, was £24 15s 6d. The bells retain their canons. In recent years those ringing the bells noted that they really were in need of major work, but were not by any means unringable. The bells were hung in their original frame and fittings of 1842 - no major work being carried out since their installation.
In 2006 the bells were rehung in a new frame, augmented to 6, with the existing cracked treble recast and the others retuned. When the treble was examined closely in the foundry before being broken up for recasting it was noticed that the crack had been skillfully filled in with lead. There is no evidence that the bell was removed from the tower to do this and we can therefore only speculate that the job was done in situ some time in the last 150 years! The new frame was made by one of the local ringers to the designs of the foundry. The back four bells still retain their canons, the two treble being cast with flat tops. The note of the tenor equates to B-46c
Details Of The Bells
1 Taylors, Eayre & Smith, Loughborough 2006 3-2-15 24.50" 1624.0Hz (G#-39c) 2 Taylors, Eayre & Smith, Loughborough 2006 3-3-04 25.50" 1447.0Hz (F#-39c) 3 W & J Taylor, Oxford 1842 3-2-02 26.50" 1288.0Hz (E-41c) 4 Henry Bagley III, Witney 1742 4-3-06 28.00" 1215.0Hz (D#-42c) 5 Henry Bagley III, Witney 1742 5-1-21 30.25" 1081.5Hz (C#-43c) 6 W & J Taylor, Oxford 1842 5-3-22 32.50" 962.0Hz (B-46c)
Inscriptions
1 Paul Marriott of Cherington Gave Me 2006
Taylors, Eayre and Smith Founders Loughborough
2 E Timms C Warden W & J Taylors Founders 1842 (In facsimile)
Recast for the centenary of the Diocesan Guild of Church Bellringers 2007
Taylors, Eayre and Smith Founders Loughborough
3 EDWD Timms C Warden W & J Taylors Founders 1842
4 William Dickings Nicklis Holtom
Thomas Attwood CW HB MA ME
5 William Dickings N Holtom T Attwood Church Wardens
H Bagley Made Me
6 The Revd Power Turner Rector
Edwd Timms Churchwarden 1842
The new treble |
The recast treble of 5. |
The Ringing Room |
The "Franklin" Tomb A Franklin was a free landowner not of noble birth Believed to be Robert le Fraunkelyn, a local landowner in 1262. |
The Church looking east. |