The Bells of St.Mary's Church - 2
Here’s a photo for you to add to your website. It was sent to me by Neil Skelton who used to be the Churches Conservation Trust’s man for this area. I don’t think I would have been able to identify the door way, but now that he says it, I can see that he’s right.
This is what Neil says:
This photograph was emailed to me earlier today by Bob Purnell of Melksham. He was sent it by someone from Buckland Newton, Dorset who was clearing out her father’s house but who had no idea where it was. Bob did give a couple of clues re dates but 1671 for the 4 and 5 and 1621 for the third but recast at a later date. All I could make out by the time I printed it off was the strawberry pattern on the two trebles. However, what I did recognise was the doorway and the random masonry which is, of course, Seavington St Mary. I feel quite pleased to have identified it. For the dates 1671 these should read 1671 and of course the third was recast in 1906 when the two trebles and the tenor were added by Taylors. I wonder who the ringers were at the time?
I tracked down a Ringers’ Association Annual Report for 1906/7 and 1907/8. There were no ringers listed in the early one, but in the 1907/8 one there was the following list :
Flaxman, J.N.
Jacobs, S.R.
Jeffreys, F.
Lukins, N.
Powers, James
Rowswell, J.
Scott, F.
Swain, B.
Swain, M.
Tucker, F.
Vaux, E.G.
Vaux, S.
Wills, R.
Perhaps when the bells were made up from three to a ring of six, lots of new people learnt to ring and then joined the Association.
I hope you are pleased with it. Your website is really good, thankyou for all the hard work you must put into it. Best wishes, Helen Beaufoy. (Tower Captain and Steeple Keeper at St Mary’s )