Mansfield Woodhouse
St Edmund

Bells

A western tower and spire containing a ring of 6 bells, a service bell and a sanctus bell.

  Inscription Size Weight
1 H D 28" 3.1.21
2

GOD SAVE HIS CHURCH  P WILSON I HOOKE WARDENS

1698

 28.875" 4.0.15
3

IN THANKSGIVING FOR THE CHURCH RESTORATION 1986-1988 * * *

JOHN TAYLOR FOUNDER

D.B STEVEN    VICAR
R.B.GRINTER   CHURCHWARDENS
R.J.LEE  

RECAST 1988

 33" 7.2.24
4

INTACTVM SILEO PERCVTE DVLCE CANO 1749

THO- HEDDERLY Founder

RECAST 1988

 36" 9.1.12
5

RING IN THE LOVE OF TRUTH AND RIGHT

JOHN TAYLOR & C..
BELLFOUNDERS
LOUGHBOROUGH

CHARLES WEBB    VICAR
WILLIAM WARNER   CHURCHWARDENS
JOSEPH HARRISON  
1892
41.5" 12.2.24
6
E Flat

J:TAYLOR AND C.. FOUNDERS LOUGHBOROUGH

1892

IN MEMORY OF
FRANCIS HALL
DIED 1888
MARY ANN HALL
HIS WIFE
DIED 1877

 46.5" 17.2.20
Service bell ihs [87] [88] sca ma ria o p n 33" 5.2.24
Sanctus bell   16.75" c.1cwt
Bells Sanctus bell Service bell Treble bell, showing
the decorations
(Photograph: G.A. Dawson)		 Treble bell, showing
the decorations
(Photograph: G.A. Dawson)

Hung in a cast-iron frame set out for 8 bells but only having 6 pits, by Fred Pembleton in 1989. The bells have iron headstocks and ball bearings. The service bell is hung for swing chiming above the ring and the sanctus bell is currently unhung in the ringing chamber.

Prior to 1988 the bells were hung in a poor wooden frame on wooden headstocks which would appear to have dated from the 1892 augmentation from 4 to 6. The bells went badly.

The treble bell is the work of Henry Dand and is probably an early casting by him in the period 1560-80. Sadly it is corroded over its surface.

The second is the work of William Noone.

The back 4 bells are the work of Taylors of Loughborough at two different dates. The 5th and tenor were new bells in 1892 and the bells cast in replaced 2 old bells. The service bell is the old 3rd bell cast by Godfrey Heathcote of Chesterfield who was casting between 1525 and his death in 1558. The old 4th bell was inscribed with the same principal inscription on the new 4th bell. It was cast by Thomas Hedderly at Nottingham. Unusually his name is in italic letters and the word “Founder” in lower case letters. He used some of the old stamps from the Oldfields on the bell including the well-known King and Queen Royal Heads which originated as early as the 14th century. The sanctus bell has no marks at all but it probably came from Nottingham in the 18th century.

A brass plaque in the tower reads:

THE LARGE BELL IN THE TOWER OF THIS CHURCH WAS
GIVEN IN 1892 TO THE HONOUR AND GLORY OF GOD
AND IN MEMORY OF
FRANCIS HALL OF PARK HALL, DIED 1888,
AND MARY ANN HALL, HIS WIFE, DIED 1877,
BY THEIR NEPHEW W.W. HALL.

“THE MEMORY OF THE JUST IS BLESSED.”