Calverton St Wilfrid

Bells

The No 5 bell
carrying the
bust of
Queen Victoria
The two new
bells, ready
to be hung
in 1996/97

These bells have a complicated history.

In 1552 there were 3 bells. This situation continued up to 1827, but two of them were supposedly cracked in 1763 when the tower was rebuilt. One was consequently sold in 1827.

Phillimore gave details of the two surviving bells, showing them to be the current 3 and 4, the latter being cracked. It can be deduced that the bell disposed of in 1827 must have been by one of the Hedderlys, for Calverton is listed in the Hedderly saleslist of 1787.

Taylors visited in 1868 and noted 2 bells with the tenor cracked; their records for 1879 are missing, but evidently they cast a third bell. There was a song written in 1879 called “The Bells of Calverton” which has as part of the theme music of the chorus the sound of three bells, the then treble, second and tenor. This shows that the new tenor bell was hung for ringing, not merely to sound the hours.

Later Taylors noted a missing third of four. They added a new bell, which was dedicated to the Jubilee of Queen Victoria, and they recast the cracked second (now fourth).

More recently these four bells were restored and augmented to six at the instigation of Jonathan and Valerie Shaw; and were re-hung in a new bell frame in 1996/97. They were dedicated by the Archdeacon of Nottingham, the Venerable Gordon Ogilvie, on Tuesday 27th January 1998.

Details of the ring are now as follows:

  Inscription Size Weight
1

1997

THESE BELLS WERE
RESTORED AND AUGMENTED
FROM FOUR TO SIX
AT THE INSTIGATION OF
JONATHAN AND VALERIE SHAW

THE MILLENNIUM BELL
PETER HILL - PRIEST IN CHARGE
THANKS BE TO GOD !

24⅞" 3.2.12
2

1996

GIVEN BY THE
SOUTHWELL DIOCESAN GUILD
OF CHURCH BELL RINGERS
TO MARK THE
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ITS FOUNDATION

1946 - 1996

27" 4.0.20
3

JESUS BE OUR SPEDE 1623

28⅝" 4.0.7
4

GOD SAVE HIS CHVRCH 1667

* RECAST 1897 *

30½" 5.1.15
5

QUEENS RECORD JUBILEE 1896

33½" 6.2.24

6 G

J TAYLOR & CO FOUNDERS LOUGHBOROUGH 1879

36⅛" 8.1.7

The fifth bell carries a bust of Queen Victoria. The ‘D’ in ‘FOUNDERS’ on the tenor is reversed.

The bells are hung for full-circle ringing.

There are several carved stones in the bell chamber, including part of a sundial.