Our Church Bells – Dating from 1593 Onwards

In 2021, the bells of Nevern Church rang out after a silence of 125 years. A project of several years to repair the church tower and restore the bells finally came to fruition as the result of much hard work and generous contributions of time and money from local people, together with grant funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The tower now has a wonderful ring of ten full-circle bells – where there were six before – plus three fixed chiming bells. Bands of ringers visit from all over the UK to ring peals here. An enthusiastic local band of ringers has been recruited, who are gradually improving their skills.

 

The Bell Ringing Chamber inside Nevern Church, Wooden beams with stone walls. St Brynach, Nevern, Pembrokeshire

The Bell Ringing Chamber

The 12th century tower until 2019 contained a ring of six bells cast by Thomas Rudhall of Gloucester in 1763. The bells weighed some 30 cwt with strike notes of F, E, D, C#, B, A. Each is inscribed, some with the names of the donors, in Rudhall lettering and scroll borders. One of the bells became cracked and was recast in 1887. 

The oak frame is thought to have been made by a local carpenter. The bells were fitted with elm headstocks, strap gudgeons, brass bearings and traditional wheels for full circle ringing. 

Full circle ringing is the classic sound of church bells in Britain. Each bell is mounted on a wheel that turns back and forth through 360 degrees. A clapper inside the bell sounds the note on each turn of the bell. Ropes on the wheels are pulled by the bell ringers below. Their art is to pull the bells in varying sequences, resulting in a wonderful tumbling cascade of sound.

Two of our church bells hanging in the tower. Nevern Church, St Brynach, Nevern, Pembrokeshire

 

 

 

 

But by around 1900, the condition of the frame and bearings had deteriorated so far as to prevent full circle ringing. Instead, some of the bells were chimed with an Ellacombe mechanism. In this arrangement, the bells remain fixed and were struck by hammers pulled by ropes from the vestry below.

The Belfry inside of Nevern Church's 12th century tower, St Brynach, Nevern, Pembrokeshire

The Belfry

By 2010, the tower itself was in need of repair, and the possibility of restoring the bells at the same time was investigated. The old frame and wheels had decayed so much, with the belfry floor virtually disintegrating, that it was beyond restoration. The only practical way forward was to replace it with a steel frame, while preserving the bells themselves.

The bells have now been retuned and re-hung. At the same time, we took the opportunity to add two new bells, plus several donated old bells – one of which dates back to 1593. [More photos of the restoration work.]

We now have a full peal of ten bells (plus three for the Ellacombe). Our fresh local band rings for Sunday services, and we have practices on Saturday mornings and Monday evenings. The tower is proving popular with ringers far and wide, and visiting bands come here as well as individuals.

For training, we have a dumb bell and a simulator.  We plan to develop Nevern into a bell ringing training centre.

Donations welcome!

The cost of the restoration of the tower and bells came to over £500,000. 

While the tower restoration is now complete, other repair work remains to be done in other parts of the church. For example, the old plasterwork of the nave needs renewal before it collapses.

We are therefore continuing to seek ways of raising money to conserve this highly important historic church so that it can be secured for future generations.  

It costs us some £75per day just to cover our running costs without allowing for additional maintenance of the tower and bells.  So do please help this small community in any way you can. 

Please visit the donations page.

 

The research and history about our Church Bells originally provided by Peter Campbell.

Unless otherwise stated all photographs are the copyright of Peter Heard, Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society