Elston
All Saints

Bells

Five of the six church bells date back to 1793 and the sixth, the treble bell, back to 1912. The opening of the new five church bells in 1793 was noted in the Nottingham Journal of 10th August:

Ringing

On Monday the 12th instant will be opened at Elston near Newark, a peal of five Bells cast and hung by T. Osborn of Downham in Norfolk. The tenor is in A. A prize of five hats will be given to the Company who ring the best round peal for the space of thirty minutes.

Mr Osborn’s stay in the neighbourhood will be about a week. Any application or letters addressed to him at the Rutland Arms in Newark or Elston will be attended to.

Newark 1793.

Unfortunately details of the results of the contest do not survive.

In 1912 John Taylor & Co, bellfounders of Loughborough rehung the five bells and augmented them to six in a cast iron low sided frame. The back five have lost their canons and are hung from cast iron headstocks with plain bearing. The bells were more recently rehung on new bearings and the frictional parts of the fittings were also overhauled by the same company in 2010.

The particulars of the bells are as follows:

Number

Weight

Diameter

Date

Note

Inscription

Treble

3-2-24

2’–1½”

1912

F

TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN LOVING MEMORY OF JOHN LLOYD
WHARTON 11 JULY 1912. PLACED
HERE  BY HIS DAUGHTER
M.D. DARWIN.

TWO

4-2-20

2’–4½”

1793

D#

LETS LIFT UP OUR VOICES WITH JOY THO OSBORN FECIT 1793

THREE

4-2-25

2’–5½”

1793

C#

HEAR ME WHEN I CALL  THO OSBORN DOWNHAM NORFOLK FOUNDER 1793

FOUR

5-1-12

2’–7¼”

1793

C

THE LORD TO PRAISE, MY VOICE I
RAISE THO OSBORN FECIT 1793

FIVE

7-0-13

2’–10”

1793

A#

GIVE NO OFFENCE TO THE CHURCH
ED. COWLEY, CURATE T. OSBORN DOWNHAM NORFOLK FOUNDER 1793

SIX

9-0-20

3’–15/8”

1793

G#

I CALL SINNERS TO REPENTANCE
R.W. DARWIN ESQ PATRON
JN DARWIN, RECTOR THO. OSBORN FECIT

The Treble bell was in memory of John Lloyd Wharton who died in 1912. He was MP for Durham (1871-1874) and also for Ripon (1886-1906) besides being director of the North Eastern Railway. The largest bell weighs half a ton and the smallest weighs just under a quarter of a tonne.