This free standing church tower, adjacent to the parish church of St.Clement in the village of Terrington St.Clement was built with bequests dating from 1501 to 1527 and is now Grade I listed. Built in ashlar it is in three stages supported by diagonal buttresses. The arched west doorway has moulded jambs and an arch below a hood mould on head stops. There is a further semi-circular doorway to the south leading to a passageway to the church.
A string course above the apex of the four-light west window and below the belfry windows define an unadorned ringing chamber. There are three-light panel belfry windows, a crenellated parapet with arcaded panelling, corner pinnacles and subsidiary pinnacles in the centre of each side. In the tower is a ring of eight bells hung for ringing in the English style.
The window of the ringing chamber was repaired by the ringers in October 2013, their fourteen names are inscribed in the top three lights of the window.
The following is a table extracted from Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers showing the weights in kg, the sounding notes of the bells, the founder and the year of casting.
Bell Weight Note Dated Founder
1 183.70 F# 1923 Mears and Stainbank
2 203.66 E# 1925 Mears and Stainbank
3 206.38 D# 1934 Mears and Stainbank
4 258.55 C# 1925 Mears and Stainbank
5 346.09 B 1816 William Dobson
6 413.22 A# 1595 Richard Holdfield
7 480.81 G# 1925 Mears and Stainbank
8 598.74 F# 1778 Osborn and Arnold
The bells were overhauled in 1956 by Mears and Stainbank.
In an audit of all the bells in Norfolk made in 1874 by John L'Estrange, the bells at Terrington were listed as follows with their inscriptions:-
1. Tho' Lester of London made me.
2. John Goldsmith fecit . Maria .1711 J.G Osier Scott.
3. John Mudd and William Wright Churchwardens 1816. [By Dobson.]
4. + NVNC CLEMENS EGO CANO VOBIS OEE IVCVNDO 1595. EW. On waist, R H and a medallion.
5. John Baseley and William Willemot CW. 1 73 1 T Newman fecit.
6. Arnold & Osborn fecit 1778.
John L'Estrange also wrote:- 'Six bells 6th Edward VI., 2, 11, 13, 16, 18, and 20 cwts.' - This refers to the 6th year of the reign of Edward VI, ie 1553, the number of bells and their weights. The weights given are approximately 50% higher than those measured in 1956. This could be because the old weight included the headstock and clapper.
Also:- 'From 1716 to 1717 there were only five bells, the treble was added before 1753.'
One, if not all, of the six 1553 bells must have gone before 1716, and been replaced by five bells, one of which was the Richard Holdfield bell of 1595.
The old (1874) 3rd is now the 5th, the old 4th is the 6th, and the old 6th is the tenor. Bells 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 are modern replacements / additions. A rough translation of the inscription on the 1595 Dobson bell is “Now, Clements, I will sing you a pleasant chime.”
Richard Holdfield was casting bells in Nottignham. He was one of four family members, Henry, Richard, Robert, and George casting bells there between about 1590 and 1660.
Arnold and Osborn. Edward Arnold was casting bells at St.Neots, Cambridgeshire from 1761 until 1785, and from 1784 to 1799 in Leicester. He was joined at St.Neots by Thomas Osborn in 1773 to 1778 when Thomas moved to Downham Market, Norfolk. He then cast bells there from 1779 and from 1798 in conjunction with William Dobson. He finished casting bells in 1806.
William Dobson cast bells in Downham Market from 1798 until 1832. The foundry was founded by Thomas Osborn who learnt the trade from Joseph Eayre whilst in St.Neots. Joseph Eayre's successors moved to Leicester and eventually Loughborough where Taylors became the family of founders and still cast bells today as Taylors, Eayre & Smith.
Mears and Stainbank were the founders at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry between 1865 and 1968. George Mears was the founder until 1865 when he was joined by Robert Stainbank. They carried on casting as Mears and Stainbank until George retired. Robert then carried on until 1883 but the name continued under various other founders until 1968 with the Hughes family running the business. This 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 closed in May 2017 but Whitechapel tower bells will continue to be cast by the Westley Group Ltd. of Cradley Heath.
Words variously from British Listed Buildings, Pevsner's Norfolk Buildings, THE Church Bells of Norfolk - WHERE, WHEN, AND BY WHOM THEY WERE MADE by JOHN L'ESTRANGE - 1874, amended and added to with own on-site observations.
Co-ordinates are for the tower.