Bell Tower - Church of St.Andrew, Wickham Skeith, Suffolk, IP14 4HX - Bell Towers on Waymarking.com

This Grade I listed church is Medieval, probably built in the C14th and C15th then restored in 1857. It is relatively small consisting only of a nave, a chancel, a west tower, and north and south porches. It is built in flint rubble with stone dressings and the chancel has the remains of render, the nave has a slated roof and the chancel is plaintiled. The massive square tower is of late C14th build, in it are a mixed ring of bells dating from the C17th and C18th. In the ringing chamber on the ground floor of the tower is a framed etching of the bells with their old weights, prior the restoration of the bells and fittings, which was completed in 2005. This shows that weight measurement has improved with time, old weights being to the nearest quarter of a hundredweight, equal to 28 pounds or 12.700kg.

The oldest bell is the third, cast by J Driver & J Edbury in 1615. They were casting bells between 1603 and 1623 in Bury St Edmunds. The tenor is the next oldest cast by John Draper in 1627 at his foundry in Thetford where bells were cast between 1600 and 1644. He succeeded Thomas who had been in business from 1574 until 1595.

John Darbie cast the fourth in 1669 at his foundry in Ipswich where he worked from 1651 until 1691. The lightest two bells were cast in the foundry of Thomas Osborn in 1780 at Downham Market, to where he had moved from St.Neots in 1779 after being there since 1773. He also cast the fifth in 1797 at Downham Market and stopped casting bells in 1806.

Following is a table extracted from Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers showing the weights in kg, and sounding note of the bells.

              Bell    Weight     Note       Casting date         Founder
              1       177.35 	  E 		1780 	     Thomas Osborn
              2       183.25 	  D 		1780 	     Thomas Osborn
              3       260.36 	  C 		1615 	     J Driver & J Edbury
              4       278.96 	  B 		1669 	     John Darbie
              5       348.81 	  A 		1797 	     Thomas Osborn
              6       480.35 	  G 	 	1627 	     John Draper

The given co-ordinates are for the south porch.

Address of Tower: Church of St.Andrew Wickham Skeith, Suffolk UK IP14 4HX Still Operational: yes Number of bells in tower?: 6 Rate tower: Tours or visits allowed in tower?: Yes Relevant website?: Not listed

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