Kneeton
St Helen

Bells

The churchwardens reported in 1669 following a rebuilding of the church that ‘our bells are “forth of order”' in the frames’.

The inscriptions on all three bells should read:

J : TAYLOR & C..  FOUNDERS LOUGHBOROUGH MDCCCXCII

All the bells were recast in 1892. The weights are 3.3.17, 4.3.1 & 6.0.1.

Southwell Diocesan Magazine in December 1891 records (p. 80) a dedication service for three new bells by Taylors of Loughborough.

In January 2001 the bells were augmented to four by the addition of a second-hand bell from the Roman Catholic church of Our Lady of Lourdes, Townhall, Swansea, in Wales:

Bell

Founder

Dated

Diameter

Weight

Treble

JOHN TAYLOR & CO.

1968

23”

2.1.23

The frame was extended by Hayward Mills Associates using secondhand low-sided castings on a steel frame. The flat top treble bell hangs from a fabricated steel headstock with ball bearings.

These changes are commemorated in a brass plaque on the south wall which reads:

Treble Bell January 2001
Donated by Susan Dawson
Installed by
Hayward Mills and George Dawson
In Memory of
Elizabeth Allen and Fred Smith