For this church:

Introduction

Location

History

Archaeology

Fittings

Glass

Organ

Bells

Clock

Stonework

Monuments

War Memorial

Churchyard

References

Pictures

Plans

Listing Description

List of Incumbents

Parish page

Ordsall All Hallows

Bells

The bell frame

Bell 3

The western tower contains a ring of six bells.

The parish magazine of May 1892 and the Easter vestry meeting of the same year stated that the estimate for the completion of a peal of six bells by Messrs. J Taylor & Co., Loughborough had been accepted. This was to include the re-casting of the smallest bell which was cracked. Nos. 2 and 3 bells were quartered and tuned. It was also to include the provision of three new bells to bring the peal to six. The total cost was £240.

An entirely new iron bellframe was fitted. New clappers, fittings, ropes and clapper stays were provided for the whole six bells. Twelve iron 'bosses' were fixed in the floors to guide the ropes. Oak beams to carry the bellframe, with a floor under and another floor midway up the tower replaced an old one. Another floor was added for the ringers to stand on, approached from the ground floor by a step ladder from the ground floor. This was altered in 1937 when a door was cut through the tower staircase for the ringers' gallery. New louvers in all the window openings of the tower, were covered over with galvanised wire frames to prevent the ingress of birds. The bells opening ceremony was conducted by The Bishop of Derby on 3 August 1892.

Notes

Bell 4: Oldest bell of the original peal and bore no inscription or date and was described as 'a very poor bell'. It was thought to date back 300 or 400 years when recast in 1892 and may possibly have been the bell described as cast in 1604. The inscription was added when it was recast.

Bell 6: John Johnson was a churchwarden. He died in 1680 and was buried in the south aisle, where there is a brass memorial to him.

In 1949 an estimate of £267 was received from Messrs. Taylor, of Loughborough for getting the six bells into good ringing order and fitting with ball bearings. No work had been carried out since 1892 when the same firm had renovated the existing bells and increased the number to six. The bells were re-hung in 1951. The bearings had been renewed and other restoration work carried out.

In December 1980 a glass screen was installed at the west end of the church to eliminate the down draft from the bell tower.

In February 1989 it was recorded that Jack Hurst, who had started as a bell ringer at the age of 14, was still ringing the bells at All Hallows at the age of 90.

In 1990 an appeal was launched to raise £1,000 to enable repairs to the bells to be carried out. This target had been exceeded by December 1990 allowing the work to commence.

Handbells also played an active part in the ringers’ diary. A set had been cast by Taylors of Loughborough in about 1896. They were little used following the Second World War until 1950 when a new team was formed. They became founding members of the 'Handbell Ringers of GB'. The bells are kept in specially lined boxes made by a firm in Whitechapel.