The 1788 Bell

After the original 1737 chapel was ransacked in 1746, the site was acquired by the Qualified congregation, and put back into use.  The chapel was rebuilt in stone, and as part of that work, a bell was purchased and hung in a small belfry attached to the eastern wall of the building.  The bell is dated 1788.

As part of the move to the current site, this bell was dismounted and rehung in the newly built bell tower of the current building in about 1889.  It was used for over 70 years as a calling bell, being rung some 15 minutes before the beginning of a service to tell the town that a service was about to start.  During this work, the stone from the Belfry was rescued, and engraved, and now resides in an alcove in the Baptistry.

Given that it is difficult to hear the bell inside the church itself, it is unlikely that it was used during the services as a ‘Sanctus’ bell.   In 1949, some repairs were required, but it would appear that, soon after, it fell out of use, and the bell hanging mechanism has since become corroded.  One major problem was access to the top of the tower, as the sides are vertical and there was no fixed ladder or stairs.  In 1950, a local tradesman used a ladder to access the bell mounting, and the church offered to purchase the ladder from him but, for some reason probably due to the scarcity of building materials at the time, the offer was not taken up.

In 2017, in order to inspect the tower, a fixed ladder was installed.  It was immediately apparent that the bell should be dismounted.  The old mounting, known as a headstock, was in a very poor state, rusty and woodworm ridden,  It can now be seen in the exhibition.  The old bell was cleaned and given a modern mounting, and is now back in use, and rung again regularly.

The stone rescued from the 1788 chapel belfry

A painting of the old chapel showing the belfry;

The old chapel was partially demolished in about 1880 and became the Old Town Bakery.  That building in the High Street is now occupied by the Cool Gourmet shop and cafe.

The bell as rescued, showing the broken cannon,                        The date of casting showing clearly                               The bell safely down to ground level
and the corrosion                                                               The bell was made by Chapman and  Mears of London

The various parts of the bell-hanging;                         The old headstock, rusty, worm-ridden; parts broken off;                    The bronze bearings, which were still
the wheel had to be cut to get it out                                         the bell was hanging from only one support.                                working after 130 years at least.
As displayed here, the headstock is upside down.

The bell on its return from the foundry;                                   The whole mounting, which is clearly                            The new clapper, partly because of the
it has been recoated,                                                               a different shape from the old one,                                   new headstock, but also because the
but did not need re-tuning.                                                           making pulling it much easier.                                           old clapper had rusted through.