Bell Tower - St Michael & All Angels - Hose, Leicestershire - Bell Towers on Waymarking.com

"At first glance this seems to be a relatively straight-forward structure, but as is usually the case first appearances are misleading. The tower actually apearing to have been built in at least seven phases, the oldest (Saxon?), encased on the outside with later work and best seen where the door into the stair has cut through the wall. Most of the visible stonework inside the ground floor and first floor levels is probably 13th? century with a mid 14th century curvilinear window set in at ground floor level. However, at first floor level we have an early 14th century statue niche on the outside with a small lancet window above, but when viewed from the inside of the tower we can see that these are themselves built into a very large blocked window which is completely invisible from the outside, (indicating that the inside of the tower is of an earlier date than the outside of the tower at the same level !).
Internally it is also apparent that that the spiral staircase, (13th century ??), originally continued further upwards, but has been cut off at first floor level. The third storey is undateable except that it shows on its E. face, (externally), an old steeply pitched roof line of the nave and so must pre-date the Perpendicular style (mid 15th century) clearstory.
The fourth storey has windows and battlements matching those of the clearstory.
Two more items in the tower are worth noting. At first floor level in the N.W. corner just above the floor is a piece of timber built into the wall which appears to follow the same slope as the scar of the early nave roof. It is possible that this timber marks the top of a very early "tower", (except that the tower would have been lower than the nave), or possibly a two-storied porch, (except that there is no evidence for an entrance at ground level), but these suggestions are only tentative.
Also at first floor level several of the floorboards have Roman numerals cut into them, presumably to help in the matching up of the pieces when the floor was laid."

SOURCE - (Visit Link)

Hose, Leics S Michael
Bells
Bell	Weight	Nominal	Note	Diameter	Dated	Founder	Canons	Turning
1	3-2-25	1306.0	E	26.00"	1938	John Taylor & Co	F
2	4-0-20	1163.0	D	27.50"	1938	John Taylor & Co	F
3	4-3-3	1097.0	C#	29.00"	1938	John Taylor & Co	F
4	6-1-14	978.5	B	32.25"	1938	John Taylor & Co	F
5	8-2-19	871.8	A	35.88"	1938	John Taylor & Co	F

Hose, Leics S Michael
Frames
Frame	Bells	Year	Material	Maker	Truss	Layout
1	1,2,3,4,5	1858†	Cast iron	John Taylor & Son	8.3.A.c

SOURCE - (Visit Link)

Address of Tower: St Michael & All Angels Bolton Lane Hose, Leicestershire England LE14 4JE Still Operational: yes Number of bells in tower?: 5 Relevant website?: [Web Link] Rate tower: Tours or visits allowed in tower?: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Please post an original picture of the tower taken while you were there. Please also record how you came to be at this tower and any other interesting information you learned about it while there.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.