St James' Church Bell Tower

About

The Bell Tower will be open from 10am - 12pm and 2pm - 4pm on Saturday 12th September. Come and view the beautiful Bell Tower at St James', usually closed to all but the bell ringers!

The tower originally held a peal of eight bells, cast in 1800 by James Wells of Aldbourne, Wiltshire. In 1912, Llewellins & James of Bristol recast the two lightest bells and tenor bell, as well as re-hanging the peal. They returned in 1923 to augment the bells to ten, as memorials to the fallen of the Great War.

However, it became clear in the following ten years that rehanging and retuning was required again, but due to fundraising by the townspeople, the entire peal of bells was recast by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough in 1934. They were recast with additional metal to make Wiltshire's first and only peal of twelve bells, the tenor weighing 24 and a half long hundredweight and striking the note D. Due to the small size of the tower, the bells were rehung in a new cast iron frame in two tiers. Five of the bells are hung on the lower tier, and the remaining seven on the upper tier.