Bell Tower - St Mary & All Saints' Church, Church Street, Little Walsingham, Norfolk, NR22 6BH - Bell Towers on Waymarking.com

This parish church dates from the C14th and C15th but was gutted by fire on 14th July, 1961, only the tower and lower parts of the walls, the font, some memorial brasses and north porch remaining. The rest of the church has been restored, Laurence King was the architect, with a new nave roof and new arcades and is now Grade I listed. Built of flint with stone dressings it comprises a nave, a chancel, north and south aisles, north and south transepts, a west tower with lead needle spire and porch, and a C15th two-storeyed and vaulted south porch. There are new and restored Perpendicular windows, the east window by John Hayward. The fire also destroyed several C15th screens.

The west tower had been restored in 1866 and now contains a medium-heavy ring of six bells hung to enable ringing in the English style. The heaviest five are all old, C16th and C17th, with a treble added in 1987 to make a good going ring. The bells are rung from a ringing room up a spiral stair leading from the open area at the base of the tower.

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

          Bell 	  Weight         Note            Dated 	      Founder
            1     364.23          C              1987      Whitechapel Bell Foundry Ltd
            2     398.71          Bb             1569      John I Brend
            3     398.71          Ab             1569      John I Brend
            4     557.46          G              1675      Edward Tooke
            5     700.35          F              1691      James Bartlet
            6     988.38          Eb             1691      James Bartlet

The Brend family business was started in Norwich by John I Brend in c1564. His grandson, William was the founder from 1582 to 1636, Alice, William's wife? founded between 1586 and 1634 when John II took over in 1634 and the company ceased founding in 1658. Edward Tooke cast bells in Norwich between 1671 until 1678, a very short time in terms of bellfounding. James Bartlet cast bells at the Whitechapel Bellfoundry in London from 1675 to 1700. He was the third Bartlet to have done so. The foundry was a family-owned business started in 1420 by Richard Chamberlain in Spitalfields and has been at the Whitechapel site for over 250yrs. Regretfully the firm is due to close in May 2017

Words from British Listed Buildings, Simon Knott's Norfolk Churches, and Pevsner's Norfolk 2 Buildings with amendments from own on site observations.

Coordinates are for the west tower.

Address of Tower: St Mary & All Saints' Church Church Street Little Walsingham, Norfolk UK NR22 6BH 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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