History of the Tower and Bells

We are privileged to be the custodians of a peal of bells which have a combined age of 1629.

Our three oldest bells, No.3, No.5 and No.6, are now 400 years old having been cast towards the end of King James I's reign in 1623. Just two years later, still all shiny and new, they'd have rung out for the coronation of King Charles I. Now, close to 400 years later they are to ring for the coronation of their 18th monarch, King Charles III.

It can sometimes be hard to believe that you are ringing something which is older than the United States of America!

Below are some big historical event along with the age of our No.3, No.5 and No.6.

In 2000, the ringers were very lucky that Dr Paul Cattermole, Bell Advisor to the Dioceses of Norwich and passionate historian and bell ringer who published work around the history of Norfolk church bells, provided the ringers with a history of the bells of All Saints. In addition to this local historian David Stone wrote a number of articles about the history of Swanton Morley and its church, some of which included the history of the tower.

Sadly the one thing which is missing is any record of the ringers who have rung the bells. We are able to make educated guesses about what was happening at Swanton Morley by what was happening at neighbouring towers.

Over the next few pages you will be able to discover the tower's fascinating history.

There is no record of the bells which were hung in All Saints upon the completions of the tower in the mid 15th century, however it is likely there would have been a ring of three or four bells. The earliest records of there being bells in the tower was in 1552 when commissioners appointed by King Edwards VI made an inventory for every church. This was with the intention of finding items which could be sold to raise funds for the crown. Many churches, aware of what was going to happen, would sell items of value prior to the inventory being so that they could keep the funds. It is believed that this is likely to have happened at Swanton Morley as the church was recorded as having one single large bell weighing 12cwt and a little bell called Gabriel.

There are no records of when bells were once again hung in Swanton Morley, however bell ringing had become an incredibly popular past time for young men during the second half of the sixteenth-century. In 1623 John Draper, a foundry in Thetford, were commissioned by the churchwardens to cast four new bells of suitable weight for change ringing to replace the ones taken during visitation. It is believed old metal went into the melting pot but the bells were of good resonant tone.

Church records from 1713 stated that All Saints had four bells with weights of 10cwt, 14cwt, 18cwt and 22cwt. As you can see above, our tenor weighs 8cwt. During this period it was not uncommon for the weights of bells to acquire exaggerated reputations for quality and weight but this seems to be have done in the extreme for Swanton Morley!

The assumption is that at there was a an enthusiastic band of ringers at the tower in the early 1700s, as a in 1730 the churchwardens commission for a new treble bell to be cast and added to the four Draper bells. This new bell cast by Thomas Newman in Norwich took the peal to five bells.

Notes written by 'Honest Tom' Martin on his visit to All Saints in 1731 records that the tower was "a square steeple, in which hang 5 tunable bells." [1]. However he recorded that by the time of his visit the tower of All Saints had suffered damage as "there were upon the steeple 4 pinnacles (sic) but one falling into the churchyard and two dropping upon the church and doing great damage and the fourth was taken down to prevent further mischief".

We know the tower was badly damaged in 1898 when it was struck by lighting on the south-east corner of the tower. An article from the Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette, a link to which is below, detailed the event which took place at 17:05 on Saturday 16 April 1898. The article describes how "the tower was injured" and how pieces of stone from the tower were thrown some distance from the tower, some of which crashed through the roof. The eastern window of the belfry was badly damaged as well as a buttress which lost some flints. The clock did not escape damage either, with its face being scorched and the wire rope which held the clock weights giving way and falling the heigh of the tower, into the church below smashing an old chest upon which a Mrs Fowler had just been working on a flower arrangement. The tower needed some repairs work carried out, especially on the corner which was struck, but all in all it seems the tower had a lucky escape!

By the turn of the twentieth the bell installation was in a poor condition , when Day of Eye stripped out the old bell frame and fittings replacing it with its current oak frame with a sixth pit for another bell to be added at a later date. The frame was also arranged so that the ring could be made up to eight in the future.

In the 1980’s one of John Draper’s bells developed a dangerous crack and was replaced by a redundant bell from St Mary’s Erpingham in 1990, this is why our fourth bell is heavier than our fifth bell. To remove the bell from the tower a cage was built around the old bell and was lowered onto a tractor trailer which was waiting inside the church under the tower. The replacement bell was collected, transported and hoisted into position by the same group of people.

Before the restoration the bells had become difficult to handle and sounded in poor tune. The fittings too had been patched up to allow very occasional ringing at the tower, however there was no local band.

In 1997 The Friends of All Saints Church donated money to have the bell tower cleaned and secured against birds entering the bell tower’s lights so in 1999 it was decided that there was enough money to  fund the refurbishment of the 5 bells.

Late 1999 it was felt that there was enough funds to add the sixth bell to fill the empty bell pit as it was likely be the last opportunity for this generation to do so and made sense to have the new treble retuned with the older bells after their refurbishment.  The five older bells were taken away by John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough and were retuned. The tower itself was cleared and the wooden frame treated as well as a complete refurbishment of the ringing chamber and the addition of sound proof ceiling in the ringing chamber which would also act as a rope guide as the drop was very long. Many local people generously gave time and money towards the project including personnel from Robertson Barracks who assisted in collecting the bells and transporting them to Loughborough and the returning them to the church. The bells were rededicated by the Rt. Rev. Tony Foottit, Bishop of Lynn in August 2000.

Since the restoration, the bells have received regular maintenance, often carried out by the ringers themselves, In 2009 the bell frame along with all the other wood in the tower was treated to protect it from woodworm and fungus. On top of this metal work which was starting to signs of rust outbreak due to a number of leaks in the tower roof.

A number of projects have been completed on the tower including the re-roofing of it and the installation of lightning conductors over a hundred years since it was struck. Finally the tower a new doorway was added to give safe access to the roof.

October 2018, the Swanton Morley Bell Ringers launched their Centenary Memorial Bell Appeal. The appeal was to have two new lighter treble bells added to the current ring of six, therefore creating a ring of eight. One of these new bells will become the “Centenary Memorial Bell”. One half of the bell will bear inscriptions to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War, whilst the other half will bear inscriptions to commemorate the centenary of the formation of the RAF.

Acknowledgements:

Paul Cattermole

David Stone