Bell Tower - St Giles - Wormshill, Kent - Bell Towers on Waymarking.com

Bell tower of St Giles' church, Wormshill, with a ring of 6 bells.

Wormshill, Kent S Giles
Bells
Bell	Weight	Nominal	Note	Diameter	Dated	Founder	Canons	Turning
1	1-2-5	2213.0	C#	18.25"	2010	Whitechapel Bell Foundry Ltd	F	N
2	1-1-27	1977.5	B	19.00"	1963	Mears & Stainbank	F
3	2-0-2	1757.5	A	21.00"	1963	Mears & Stainbank	F
4	2-1-0	1652.5	G#	21.50"	1731†	Samuel II Smith
5	2-1-7	1478.5	F#	22.50"	1731†	Samuel II Smith
6	3-1-15	1319.0	E	25.25"	1718	Richard Phelps	Y

Frames
Frame	Bells	Year	Material	Maker	Truss	Layout
1	1,2,3,4,5,6	1988	Steel	Locally manufactured

SOURCE - (Visit Link)

"History

	1718		2nd (of 4) cast by Richard Phelps (this bell is now the tenor).
	1719		3rd (of 4) cast by Richard Phelps.
	1731		3 bells were cast by Samuel Smith II of York for West Bretton, Yorkshire.
	1851		3 bells were cast by C. & G. Mears for St Gregory's, Canterbury.
	1863		Treble and tenor (of 4) replaced with 2 steel bells by Naylor Vickers.
	1885		Tower deemed unsafe for bells to be rung properly.
	1944		Albert Hughes from Whitechapel inspected the bells with a view to installing a ring of 6. There are local memories of there being 3 (rather than 2) steel bells - a check with the Whitechapel Foundry may be able to confirm this. The steel bells were scrapped shortly afterwards.
	1963		The 3 bells from St Gregory's, Canterbury were recast by Mears & Stainbank.
	1985		The 3 bells from St Gregory's, Canterbury were removed from the church and stored at Richard Offen's house.
	1988		The 1718 bell was welded by Soundweld and hung in a new frame for 6 in the tenor pit. The frame was designed by Whitechapel and built by M. Nightingale in Faversham. The 3 St Gregory bells were hung in pits 1, 2 & 3.
	1995		The treble and 2 from West Bretton were hung in the 2 empty Wormshill pits on 13th May. The West Bretton tenor was retained for possible use in Murston Old Church. The remodelled ring was then dedicated by R't Rev'd David Say on 8th October.
	2010		The treble was recast into a heavier bell by Whitechapel."

SOURCE - (Visit Link)

"A church existed before the Norman conquest. In 1086 the lack of change in value pre-conquest (TRE) to 1086 (as now) may suggest that no major building work had occurred in the intervening 20 years. In the south wall of the nave by the porch is what looks like an Anglo-Saxon double-splayed window. The window had been covered up and was revealed in 1879. Tatton-Brown (1993) states that it is not possible to be certain that it is an Anglo-Saxon window, but it is possible it could be early Norman. The official listing record describes the church as "First half C11, C13 and C15, restored 1879–80 by Clarke" which agrees with Tatton-Brown's earlier date.

The church has a ring of six bells which are notable both for the lightness of the ring and the story of their restoration. In 1944 a 16-year-old resident, Michael Nightingale, opened a Post Office savings account entitled the "Wormshill Bell Fund" by paying in ten shillings. He invited Albert Hughes from Mears & Stainbank to inspect the tower with a view to replacing the bells with a ring of six. He tells of Mr Hughes’ surprise at being met at Sittingbourne Railway Station by a youth rather than the somewhat older gentlemen he was used to dealing with Fifty years later he completed the full ring of six bells - one of which was original and five were rescued from abandoned churches.

The oldest bell in the ring was cast as the original number 2 in 1718 by Richard Phelps. In 1731 Samuel Smith II of York cast three bells for West Bretton, Yorkshire and C & G Mears cast three bells for St Gregory the Great and Canterbury in 1851. At Wormshill the treble and tenor were replaced by two steel bells in 1863. Naylor Vickers carried out the work for free, the value of the old bell metal being enough to pay for the new steel bells. However, barely twenty years later in 1885 the tower was deemed unsafe and ringing had to stop. At some point the old number 3 bell appears to have been replaced by a steel bell. All four bells were cracked by clocking, that is pulling the clapper against the bell over by a rope.

Shortly after Hughes' visit in 1944 the three steel bells were scrapped leaving just the old number 2. In 1963 the three 1851 bells of St Gregory's were recast by Mears & Stainbank. By 1988 sufficient funds had accumulated so that the remaining 1718 bell could be welded. A new bell frame was designed and built for six bells, the one remaining bell being hung as the new number six. The new frame was installed at the level of the former first floor tower room. The west window was replaced by louvres, so two levels of louvres are visible from the road. The three St Gregory bells were obtained (St Gregory's was now redundant) and hung as numbers 1 to 3. Although the four bells were not tuned as a diatonic scale (C#, B, A and E), three full peals were rung on them.

In 1995 the three 1731 bells from West Bretton were obtained. The West Bretton 1 and 2 were hung as Wormshill 4 and 5. Nightingale's dream of fifty years earlier finally came true on 8 October 1995 when the bells were dedicated by the Bishop of Rochester, the Right Reverend David Say. In 2010 the 1 long cwt 9 lb (121 lb or 55 kg) treble was recast as the present 1 long cwt 2 qr 5 lb (173 lb or 78 kg) by the Whitechapel Foundry.

The present ring has the second lightest tenor of any six in the County of Kent (3 long cwt 1 qr 15 lb; 379 lb or 172 kg) and the combined weight of the bells is the lightest six in the county (12 long cwt 3 qr 16 lb; 1,444 lb or 655 kg). "

SOURCE - (Visit Link)

 

Address of Tower: St Giles The Street Wormshill, Kent England ME9 0TT Still Operational: yes Number of bells in tower?: 6 Relevant website?: [Web Link] Rate tower: Not listed 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.