Thrumpton
All Saints

Bells

A ring of six bells in the western tower. The bells are rung from the ground floor. Details as follows:

  Inscription Size Weight
1

FROM GENEROUS HEARTS AND DILIGENT HANDS. LAUS DEO

1988

 24¾" 3.2.22
2

J. TAYLOR & CO FOUNDERS 1871

ALL SAINTS DAY 1871 GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO

 26½" 3.2.24
3

EXDONO GERVATII PIGOTT 1633

 27½" 4.0.10
4

GOD SAVE THE CHVRCH 1633

 29½" 4.3.10
5

Dum michael tonat qui nos ab hoste repellat

 32¾" 6.1.12

6
B flat

I sweetly toling men do call to taste on meats that feeds the soole 1610

 33¾" 6.1.5

Hung in two frames, the back five bells are in a cast-iron low sided frame for five bells by Taylors in 1932 and the treble in a single frame above. The back five bells have canon-retaining headstocks and ball bearings.

The treble and second bells are by Taylors. Some of the metal for the treble bell came from the bell removed from the old church of St Leonard, Newark, which was demolished in 1979.

The third and fourth bells are the work of George I Oldfield of Nottingham. Godfrey, in 1880, records that bells 3 and 4 were donated by Gervase Pigott and curiously that the inscription on bell 4 was God Save the King.

The fifth bell is a most interesting bell which dates to the last half of the 15th century. It bears badges which associate it with the medieval York foundry though the name of the founder is as yet unknown. Prior to 1385 bells for Norton’s churches were cast by Norton’s bell-founders but from that date, when Burscough assumed responsibility, York had a larger say in changes in the church fabric. Other bells with the same word stop as this one include the tenors at Springthorpe, Lincolnshire and St. Mary, Bishophill Junior, York.

The tenor bell is the work of Henry II Oldfield.

There is a record in 1552 of curate, Robert Smythe, receiving “tre bellys of on accorde hangying in the stepul” which appears to relate to Thrumpton. This gift, with a silver chalice is said to be the result of the dissolution of a priory. However, the details are contained in a book marked as belonging to Ratcliffe on Soar held in the Dublin Archives, and so there is uncertainty as to which church this record refers.