Bell Tower - St Michael - Beer, Devon
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SMacB
N 50° 41.926 W 003° 05.560
30U E 493456 N 5616330
Bell tower of St Michael's church, Beer, with a ring of 5 bells.
Waymark Code: WM160RA
Location: Southern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/09/2022
Views: 0
Bell tower of St Michael's church, Beer, with a ring of 5 bells.
"Grade II Listed parish church, 1877 by Hayward of Exeter. Originally the church had a large stone spire with lucarnes (Pevsner: a small gabled opening in a roof or a spire). Consecrated in 1878, it was constructed on the site of a pre-1146 chapel. The spire was removed in 1964 for safety reasons. Kelly's 1889 edition tells us it had 'a tower with short spire, containing a clock and one bell' but a photo in 1922 shows the clock in its current position and the spire increasing the tower height by about 70%, that could not be described as short. This leads me to suspect the spire was replaced early in the 20th century as the same text is repeated up to at least the 1902 edition. Kelly's 1889-1902 also tells us the church 'was erected in 1877-8 by the Hon. Mark Rolle D.L., J.P. at a cost of about £8,000, to serve as a chapel of ease to the mother church at Seaton'. The church has six bells, a disused 16th century Exeter foundry bell and five Mears & Stainbank bells, four dated 1871 and one 1866."
The present peel of five bells came from All Saints Church in Braywood, Berkshire, when that church was demolished. They are located in the Southern bell-tower and are normally rung weekly by our locally-based group of Ccampanologists.