Bellcote of St Bartholomew's church, Loweswater, with a single bell.
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Extract from "The return of a Medieval Bell to Loweswater Church" by Fiona Lambrick
"There had been a chapel in Loweswater in circa 1138 when it was granted to the priory of St Bees. Probably from the thirteenth century the chapel served not just the village of Loweswater, but the Manor of Balnes which also contained Thackthwaite and Mockerkin/Sosgill. The de Multons were the resident lords of Loweswater at the time. Either Alan de Multon or his son Thomas (who had changed his name by taking his mother’s name of de Lucy) purchased the Manor of Thackthwaite. The raising of Loweswater to the status of a parochial chapelry with a graveyard, which probably served the area of today’s parish, didn’t take place until 1403. Mary Fair places the date of the medieval bell as about 1404, so its casting and hanging may have been associated with greater status and dedication of the chapel.
Bells played a significant part in daily life before the Reformation especially in rural areas where there were no clocks. Typically, the bell for matins would be rung at dawn for people to wake in time, at least an hour, before attending matins. It would also be rung at different times during the day to announce subsequent services, and for marking deaths and funerals. In the evening it would ring for the curfew (‘cover your fire’) signalling the end of the day and time to go to bed. Significant ringing was done in Rogation week, the sixth week after Easter, when clergy and parishioners toured the parish praying for deliverance from evil and blessing on the fields. Bells were often given nicknames either of saints or the donors. Like other objects in worship, they were holy and a new one was solemnly consecrated by a bishop. Holy water was cast on it, oil and chrism were applied to it, and then censed with incense. The Loweswater bell was probably well-used in medieval times, and would therefore have played a significant role in parish life.
The chapel at Loweswater was demolished in 1827 and the bell was removed. Allegedly, it was sold for half a crown to a scrap merchant in Maryport. The present, much larger, church was built in place of the chapel at the time when it was thought the population of Loweswater would rise significantly due to prospective lead mining in the area.
In 1953 when Mr St George Curwen aged 78 decided to get married again [to Miss Claribel Walker] his daughter Barbara Daniels [they later changed their name to Wetenhall] and her family had to move out of his house in Papcastle and came to live at Shatton Lodge [a house in Embleton between Lorton and Cockermouth]. Barbara's husband, Roger Wetenhall, was a keen campanologist. He had been trying to revive the art in West Cumbria and told us that Lorton church should have a "ring o’ bells". I said we could not because we had no bell.
Some time later, at a party in Shatton Lodge, [probably in the early 1960s] a man I had not met before was talking to me and suddenly said, ''would you like a bell for your church at Lorton? There is an old one lying about on the floor in Crosthwaite church at Keswick and it would be nice if it could be hung in a church". I was surprised and said it was a lovely idea. I would put it to the PCC [i.e. Lorton Parochial Church Council, of which my mother was secretary from 1950/1 for a long period before becoming Treasurer, a post she held for many years. She was a member of the Lorton PCC continuously for about 45 years.] When I did so the answer went like this: “Oh no, we don't want any of that. We have a bell of our own anyway and there are no bell ringers in Lorton.” I asked why no-one knew about our bell and why we did not use it. “Oh no, they said, the fittings will be rusted up and probably the bell is cracked. Anyway, we don't want another. Noisy things, bells”.
I was rather sad and decided to offer it to some of our neighbours who might be glad of a bell. When I rang Geoffrey White he was ecstatic and said he would love the bell. Theirs had been lost for over a hundred years, when the old chapel was pulled down and the new church built. He decided to go over to Crosthwaite and see it. When he did so he was even more ecstatic because he found an inscription on it which proved it to be pre- Reformation, so it could be the original Loweswater bell which had been lying on a rubbish tip at Maryport and was discovered by Canon Rawnsley, a previous vicar of Crosthwaite, founder of the National Trust, who took it back to his church. There it had remained on the floor for at least sixty years. Geoffrey [had previously been] to the Crosthwaite PCC and asked if Loweswater could have it. They had refused, saying it was their heritage, found by their famous Canon Rawnsley.
Geoffrey had hung on for years, hoping to get it back. I am not sure whether in the end it was sold to him, because a rumour went round that he was spending quite a bit of time in the Scalehill Hotel chatting up rich Americans who gave him money for the church, and that may have been the reason. In the end he won and had the bell refurbished after all its adventures and now it rings sweetly in its real home a much nicer sound than Lorton’s own bell which was rescued by Mr Woodhead–Dixon [Vicar of Lorton] and is now used every Sunday. Our Lorton bell is more raucous and seems to be saying “hurry up, you’re late”. It was so lucky that our Lorton PCC rejected the Loweswater bell because if it had been hung [in the tower of St Cuthbert’s church, Lorton], there would have been no significance, whereas it is precious to Loweswater.
The minutes of Crosthwaite PCC for their meeting held in June 1965, record that ‘the vicar announced that Loweswater would like the Bell, which has been in Crosthwaite for many years returned
Loweswater PCC minutes for a meeting held in August that year record that ‘the vicar said he had been in touch with the vicar of Crosthwaite, who informed him that the Crosthwaite Council had agreed to return the ancient bell belonging to Loweswater at present on view at Crosthwaite’.
Later, in December 1965, it was reported at the Loweswater PCC meeting that ‘Crosthwaite Church had sanctioned the removal of the ancient bell to Loweswater.
The Bell had come back to Loweswater church in 1966 but was not hung until it had been refurbished. It was then ready for its dedication service at Loweswater on Sunday 13 August 1972, the first time it had been heard ringing there in 145 years."
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