St.Peter & St.Paul's Church, High Street, Grays, Essex. RM17 6LN. - Bell Towers on Waymarking.com

The church of St.Peter & St.Paul in Grays was largely rebuilt in 1846, but retains some older work, notably from the C13th in the north tower, the south doorway of the nave and internal arches.

The bells are in the north tower which in reality is a north-east tower. It is at the eastern end of the north aisle and the bells are immediately above the chapel altar, so the bells are rung from the steps leading to the altar. This is a very unusual arrangement.

Five of the original bells are still in existence, cast in the C17th by different founders, this was often the case as founding bells was a bit hit and miss. To have survived this length of time is quite remarkable.

The tenor, seventh and sixth were all cast by James Butler, who probably set up his foundry at Bishop's Stortford and had learned his trade at the Whitechapel Foundry under Robert Mot. They were originally cast for St.Clement's, West Thurrock in 1632, and moved to Grays in 1984 after tuning at Whitechapel to augment the three Warner bells already there. Two more bells were acquired to make a ring of eight.

Only one of the Warner bells remains, the treble cast in 1883, the other two found to be in bad shape and replaced by two bells cast by Whitechapel in 1984. These are the second and third of the eight. The fourth is another old bell attributed to John Wood and cast in 1694, possibly at Hitchin.

One Thomas Bartlet cast the fifth in 1621. He was one of the many master founders who cast bells at the Whitechapel Foundry in London and was active from 1616 to 1632.

There is a Service bell which was cast in 1694 by James Bartlet, also a master founder at Whitechapel from 1675 to 1700 and grandson of Thomas.

Here is a list taken from Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers with the number of the bell, the weight of the bells converted to metric units, kg, the note the bell sounds, the date of casting, and the founder:-

       1 	172.82    G 	1883 	John Warner & Sons 	
       2 	186.89    F# 	1984 	Whitechapel Bell Foundry Ltd 	
       3 	197.77    E 	1984 	Whitechapel Bell Foundry Ltd 	
       4 	234.96    D 	1694 	John Wood 	
       5 	301.19    C 	1621 	Thomas Bartlet 	
       6 	378.29    B 	1632 	James Butler 	
       7 	477.18    A 	1632 	James Butler 	
       8 	553.38    G 	1632 	James Butler 	

Service bell	165.11    F 	1694† 	James Bartlet

Address of Tower: St.Peter & St.Paul's Church High Street Grays, Essex UK RM17 6LN Still Operational: yes Number of bells in tower?: 9 Rate tower: Tours or visits allowed in tower?: Yes Relevant website?: Not listed

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