Lea Marston

St John the Baptist 3: 6-1-8 in B – Anticlockwise

Grid Reference 139/927204 Lea Marston. Source: Mike Chester
Postcode B46 1GA
Affiliation St Martin’s Guild
Peals None
Sunday None
Practice None
Other Information Anticlockwise

History

The church seems to have existed by 1252, when it was a dependent chapelry of Coleshill Parish Church, and was granted to the Benedictine Markyate Priory.  The south wall of the nave and possibly the north wall date from this era. Two windows in the north wall are early 14th century in style.  The nave was extended 9 feet (2.7 m) westwards in the 15th century for the addition of a bell-cot.  The south porch is another addition that seems to date from the 15th century.  In 1876-77 the chancel was rebuilt and the north-west tower was added.

The bells were transferred and the old frame and fittings reused when the new tower was built.  The bells are hung anticlockwise and are housed in a wooden frame, possibly from 1793.  This date is is carved into the frame alongside the initials “T P”.  This shows that the frame pre-dates the current tower. There are three parallel pits, with the tenor in the middle

The fittings were supplied in 1907 by James Barwell of Birmingham, at a cost of £33/2/6. They also added angle plates and tie rods to the frame. The bells all retain their canons. The two tenors have been quarter turned, the treble not having been turned. These bells are perfectly ringable.

The catalogue of bells cast at the Gloucester foundry published in 1804 lists three bells cast for Lea Marston. This may be inaccurate, as the Loughborough foundry records show that the old tenor, which they recast in 1855, bore the inscription “GOD SAVE THE CHVRCH 1629”. It weighed 5-2-7. The same firm recast the treble in 1873, it having been cracked for some time.

 

There looks to be room for 2 bells swinging at 90 degrees to the existing 3. The current bells, however, would need some time on the tuning machine in order to bring them into a diatonic scale – listen and find out how much!

The tuning figures, supplied by Bill Hibbert are very roughly as follows:

         Hum   Prime  Tierce  Nominal
Treble : 322    589    746     1254

Second:  293    571    664     1059
Tenor :  270    464    589      985

Therefore, the three nominals are D#+ 13c, C + 21, B – 5. The spacing of the bells from treble to second to tenor is roughly 3 semitones and 1 semitone. This is not a combination that occurs in a major diatonic scale. The middle bell is a semitone flat of where it “should” be.

The inscriptions are given in Tilley and Walters’ book, “The Church Bells of Warwickshire”:

Lea Marston Inscriptions

Details of the Bells

1 John Taylor & Co, Loughborough   1873  5-1-13  29.50″  1254.0Hz (D#+12c)
2 John Rudhall, Gloucester         1791  5½ cwt  30.25″  1059.0Hz (C+21c)
3 John Taylor & Son, Loughborough  1855  6-1-08  32.50″   985.0Hz (B-5c)

Photo Gallery

Lea Marston Treble. Source: Mike Chester Lea Marston Second. Source: Mike Chester
The Treble The Second
Lea Marston Tenor. Source: Mike Chester Layout 3.1
The Tenor The frame layout