01/02/2026
“December Visit to the Bell-Tower”
(Article as featured in the “Pieces of Eight” Parish Magazine.)
The Present St.Kew church is basically as it was built in the 15th century on the site of a chapel belonging to the 6th century monastery. The church was dedicated to the biblical St.James , and not St.Docco or St.Kew .
The tower as it is now was restored in 1923 and involved heavy expense and much thought and planning, with the works at that time costing just over £400.
Much has been written about both the tower and the church it is part of , but we are here in the tower on a chilly December evening to listen to a talk about the Bells and a demonstration from the St.Kew Bellringers .
Bellringing has been part of the church and parish for hundreds of years, with the Ringers Rhyme, hanging on the tower wall, dated from 1783.
There were 4 bells in 1552, they were taken down and recast in 1760 to make 6 bells, and those were again recast in 1818 by Rudell of Gloucester, a noted bell foundry. One of the reports in 1813 stated that “one bell crazy”!!! Yet the bells were deemed “all in good order” in 1823. In 1845 and 1869, the third and tenor bells were recast again by a leading bell foundry in Whitechapel, London. Two more bells were recast and rehung in 1905 at a cost of £167.
In 1930 a new tenor bell was fitted , but there are no surviving details of the foundry or the cost.
Taking the bells down and getting them back up again was a huge effort, bearing in mind that the tenor bell weighed around 650kg! There were pieces that could be removed from the floor and the beams to assist the work.
Bells are tuned after casting by shaving off metal from the inside of the bell, usually by using a vertical lathe.
Bell ringing seemed to sound more involved by the minute as The Captain of the Tower, Ken Godden, discussed the art of bell ringing whilst actually ringing a bell at the same time!
Standing with the tail of the rope coiled in his left hand, he started to get the bell going , releasing some more of the loop with each pull of the rope , and holding on to the thicker coloured woolen part of the rope, (known as a Sally, or a Fellet in St.Kew)
He explained how the role of the captain of the tower , involved calling the changes , when bells needed to be rung in a different order and who was the leading bell. Finally he showed how to bring the bell down to a stop.
At that point the other bellringers returned to the tower for a demonstration, and after some of the visitors had a go at ringing.
It was at this point I discovered I had been standing in front of a small square of glass, which held behind it, a skull in the wall, discovered during the towers renovations.
Many thanks to the St.Kew Bellringers for giving up their time. They usually practice ringing on Wednesday nights throughout the summer.
The St Kew Historical Society usually hold a meeting/talk on the second Thursday evening of each month.
