Ilmington

St Mary 8: 12-3-26 in E (GF)

Grid Reference 151/210435 Ilmongton. Source: Mike Chester
Postcode CV36 4LB
Affiliation Coventry DG
Peals Felstead Database
Sunday Not Known
Practice Wednesday 1900-2030 (Alt with Mickleton)

History

In the middle of another pretty village, St Mary’s holds a good ring of eight that is rung from the ground floor. The church consists of a chancel with a small north vestry, nave, north and south transepts, south porch, and west tower. The building dates from about the middle of the 12th century, when it had a chancel and a nave of the present size. The west tower was the first addition, late in the same century. Early in the 13th century the chancel was rebuilt; its width and the thickness of its walls are doubtless those of the 12th century, but its length was increased. The north transept appears to have originated in the 13th century as a short aislechapel with an arcade of two 8 to 9 ft. bays, but the transept was apparently enlarged in the 15th century when the arcade was altered from two bays into one large bay with the re-use of the older material. Most likely the south transept was then added to complete the crossshaped plan, but it has been almost entirely rebuilt in modern times (1846?).

The clearstory of the nave was a mid-late-14th-century addition but the roof shows no detail earlier than the 16th century. The top stage of the tower is a late-15th-century heightening and the south porch an early-16th-century addition. The church was restored in 1846, apparently rather drastically; further repairs were done in 1911, when the blocked tower archway was reopened and the nave roof opened out. The roof had to be repaired again in 1939 owing to the ravages of the death-watch beetle.

The back 5 were cast as a ring in 1641 and are extremely attractive bells to look at. They are “a ponderous and full throated old style ring” (CJP). The treble was added in 1921 by Thomas Bond of Burford, whose father, Henry Bond, had rehung and quarter turned the Bagley bells in 1903. It was probably at this time that the canons were removed from the existing bells. The three trebles were all cast with flat tops.

The first peal on the bells was rung in 1922:

Ilmington First Peal

The six bells were rehung by Taylors in 1952, the bells being hung in a cast iron lowside bell frame for 8 bells. They also provided cast iron headstocks, fixed steel gudgeons, self-aligning ball bearings and traditional wheels, stays and sliders.

The empty pits were filled in October 2000. The Bond bell was noticeably sharp and this was sent to Taylors to be retuned as part of the augmentation scheme, the previous weight was 6-0-15. It is now slightly lighter than the second.

The first peal on the ring of 8 was rung in 2004:

Ilmington First Peal on 8

The inscriptions of the back 5 bells are given in Tilley and Walters’ “Church Bells of Warwickshire”

Ilmington Inscriptions

The inscription on the Bond bell is given in the “Belfry Gossip” column of The Ringing World of December 16th 1921, “A new treble, weighing 6 cwt. 3 qr., has been cast by Mr. Thomas Bond, of Burford, Oxon, and added to the peal of five at Ilmington, near Shipston-on-Stour, where the bells were rehung by Mr. Bond in 1902. The new bell bears the inscription: ‘ Thanks be to God who giveth us victory and peace. A. N. Warner, Hector; H. L. Terry, Ringing Master ‘

The church can be seen as you drive by, but is a just little difficult to get close to unless you know how! Go through the village until you are just past parallel with the tower, with it to your right, and there is a side road that leads to the churchyard gate. Enter the church via the south door.

Details of the Bells

1 John Taylor & Co, Loughborough  2000   5-2-04  28.375″  1356.0Hz (E+49c)
2 John Taylor & Co, Loughborough  2000   6-0-14  29.375″  1275.0Hz (D#+42c)
3 Thomas Bond, Burford            1921   5-3-26  30.875″  1140.0Hz (C#+48c)
4 Henry Bagley I, Chacombe        1641   7-1-10  33.50″   1017.0Hz (B+50c)
5 Henry Bagley I, Chacombe        1641   7-2-10  35.375″   903.0Hz (A+45c)
6 Henry Bagley I, Chacombe        1641   8-1-25  37.375″   850.0Hz (G#+40c)
7 Henry Bagley I, Chacombe        1641  10-2-17  40.25″    753.0Hz (F#+30c)
8 Henry Bagley I, Chacombe        1641  12-3-26  44.25″    669.5Hz (E+27c)

 

Photo Gallery

Ilmington Ringing Chamber. Source: Mike Chester Ilmington Arch. Source: Mike Chester
The Ground Floor
Ringing Chamber
The fine Norman arch
leading to the sanctuary.
Ilmington Plan. Source: British History Online
A Plan of the Church