Church Bells of Warwickshire

COUGHTON St Peter 6, 11-2-20 in F#

coughton.jpg (37382 bytes)

Grid Reference:-
150/083605

Postcode:
B49 5JA

Bell Audio:-
None Available

Guild Affiliation:-
Coventry DG

Peals Rung Here:-
Felstead Database

Sunday Ringing:-
Not known

Practice Night:-
Wedesday
1945 - 2100 (Check)

History Of The Bells

The church is situated next to Coughton Court, the home of the Throckmorton family of Gunpowder Plot fame. The house is now in the care of the National Trust - look for the signs for public entrance.

Until recently the bells were a very difficult ground floor ring in a wooden frame with very large wheels making the bells turn slowly. Great local efforts raised the necessary money and in 1991 they were rehung lower in the tower, in a metal frame, (one above five, the treble partly inside the space occupied by the old frame) and moved to an upstairs ringing room.

The old frame dates from 1686, when the 6 bells were cast, and has been retained in the tower. This frame had the fourth bell raised above the others. Before that date there were only three bells, the tenor weighing around 18 cwt. These bells were deliberately broken and disabled by Sir Robert Throckmoreton and "a crew of evell popishly affected persons".

Before the restoration of 1991 the bells had previously been refitted by Charles Carr of Smethwick in 1893. It is presumably at this earlier point that the canons were knocked off the tenor. The front 5 are hung on canon-retaining headstocks. The second shows signs of chip-tuning, but none of the others do.

The tenor frequency equates to F#+14c and is therefore not in the key of F as has been up to now reported in Dove hardcopy editions

Details Of The Bells

1    Henry & Matthew Bagley, Chacombe  1686   4-3-25   28.75"  1270.0Hz 
2    Henry & Matthew Bagley, Chacombe  1686   5-2-13   30.00"  1157.0Hz
3    Henry & Matthew Bagley, Chacombe  1686   6-1-00   32.25"  1034.0Hz
4    Henry & Matthew Bagley, Chacombe  1686   7-2-04   33.625"  943.0Hz
5    Henry & Matthew Bagley, Chacombe  1686   8-3-00   36.75"   847.0Hz
6    Henry & Matthew Bagley, Chacombe  1686  11-2-20   42.00"   746.0Hz

Photo Gallery

None Available