Bell Tower - All Saints - East Budleigh, Devon - Bell Towers on Waymarking.com

Bell tower of All Saints' church, East Budleigh, with a ring of 8 bells.

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"The west tower appears to be the oldest part since the aisles butt it.

Tall west tower of 3 stages. It has a chamfered plinth, diagonal buttresses to the west end and set back buttresses to the east; weathered offsets and stop below the belfry. Embattled parapet. Semi-octagonal stair turret on the north side rising a little higher than the tower with its own embattled parapet, tiny slit windows and surmounted by a brass weather cock. If it is the one mentioned in the 1785 churchwardens accounts then it has been restored in the C20. The belfry has square- headed 2-light windows with cinquefoil heads and hoodmoulds. There are slit windows to the ringing loft on the north and south sides. On the west side is a doorway with a 2-centred arch and moulded surround with roll stops. It contains a C19 plank door with ornate strap hinges. Directly above is a rebuilt 3-light window with Perpendicular tracery. The tower dripcourse is carried round the bottom of the window and there is a hoodmould over.

The tower arch is tall with a chamfered double arch ring dying into the plain responds.

There is a C20 timber screen across the tower made as a copy of the chancel screen and above that is the organ which was moved from the chancel and rebuilt here in 1967."

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"It is most likely that East Budleigh would have had one or more bells when the original bell tower was build. The massive structure today is 80 feet high. Our bells have always been rung from the ground floor within the church itself, until 1966, when a ringing chamber was provided. The bell ringers had to give way to the placing of the church organ in the tower space. 

3 Bells were listed in 1553 in the church inventory. All 3 were recast and 2 more added in 1755 by the Bilbie family who had a foundry in Cullompton. We can safely assume that Sir Walter Raleigh himself would have heard the same bells ringing across the fields almost 500 years ago.

Today we have a ring of 8 bells. The longest peal was rung at the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 1977. It lasted 2 hours and 47mins and was rung in 5040 plain Bob trebles."

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Address of Tower: All Saints church East Budleigh, Devon England EX9 7ED Still Operational: yes Number of bells in tower?: 8 Relevant website?: [Web Link] Rate tower: Not listed Tours or visits allowed in tower?: Not listed

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