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St Nectan's Church - Welcombe

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Bells Gallery


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"The Team" waiting to load the bells onto the lorry which
took them to Nicholson's in June 2016 to be refurbished.

The return of the bells! 26th September 2016 - See this pic with a write up in the North Devon Journal of 13/10/16

Rt Revd Sarah Mullally Bishop of Crediton
with the ringers after the re-dedication of the tower and bells
on Friday 18th November 2016

Rt Revd Sarah Mullally Bishop of Crediton
with the ringers, clergy and Churchwardens
after the re-dedication of the tower and bells
on Friday 18th November 2016

You can normally hear the bells at Church;
You can see the bells ringing (click on the picture above)ut occasionally you will be able to see AND hear themOn occasional Sundays and on special occasions when possible there will be CCTV of the bells on a big screen.Obviously because of damp and cold, and security, th equipment is not left in theChurch all the time, but on certain Sundays and on special occasions you will beable to hear the bells and see them working in the belfry at the same time.Go to top of page

The rebuilt frame was assembled at the works, allowing us a view of the frame not possible in the confined space of the belfry.

Notice the massive 'A'section main supporting beams.

With thanks to James Hill for the new pics from Monday 26th September 2016 - when the bells came back

The renovated wheels before being sent up into the tower

The number 5 bell still hadn't got it's headstock at this stage - it arrived on Thursday 29th September 2016

Most of the heavy lifting still to be done

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James caught us all looking at the press photographer!

A time for speeches1

Gareth Williams, the funded Projects Manager from Viridor Credits, came to inspect the bells and tower.
Viridor Credits provided the biggest grant for the project - see press release here.

The wheels had to be split in half to fit through the hatches!

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Time for a rest

Mick seems pleased to see the bells back!

See "The Team" in action! Click the picture to watch
Lots of nuts and bolts being undone, and finally, the wheels are off.

Andrew Nicholson showing us the old, rusted foundation beams from the Church

This is the works building at Nicholson's, which used to be a power station,
very handy as it came complete with a 4 ton overhead crane which travels along the length of the building!

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Here are our bells, waiting to be cleaned and put back together again

This is the 5th bell, the oldest one, showing the holes in the crown from which the bell is now to be hung.
You can also see the cannons on the top of the crown which used to support the bell, but are now redundant,
and the damage to the argent at the top of the picture, which again is now redundant.

Here is the wheel from which our tenor will hang - the centre and spokes are original,
the ash circle on the outside is new, as will be the shrouds round the edge to keep the rope on course.

This is the old headstock from which the 5th bell used to hang. Nicholson's are making a new headsock for us
which will be mean that the old damaged parts are no longer supporting the bell.

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This 8 foot wheel on the wall of the blacksmiths shop in Nicholson's is from a 2 1/2 ton bell!

The Frank Mack bells at the 2016 Village Fete (click on picture to see them being rung)

This is the framework Mick built ready to form the concrete pads on which the newly refurbished frame will rest . . .

Showing the reinforcing rods.

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This is what the belfry normally looks like - except the ropes are missing. The bell nearest the camera is the lightest bell, the treble,
then they go clockwise, so bells 1, 2, 3 and 4 are in a row swinging East-West, and bells 5 and 6 (the biggest bell, the tenor)
are in line behind the other 4, swinging North-South. Once the bells are returned you will be able to watch the bells ringing
from this view on a live webcam from inside the Church

This is (sort of!) what a bell looks like when it is 'up' in the ringing position, and 'down' as in the photo below.
The bll is fixed to the wheel and the whole unit swings on bearings in the frame shown.
When the bell is 'up' and not being rung it rests on a stay. We have Hastings Stays, which are described graphically here.
When the bell comes up from one direction it goes on one side off the slider bar (bottom right on the diagram),
and on the other side of the bar when it comes up from the other way. It will make more sense when you see the
bells in action in a couple of month's time.

Refurbished photo frames arriving at the Church

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Passing Stephen having a bit of a break!

Ready to have the ringing certificates put in them

"The Team" waiting to load the bells onto the lorry which took them to Nicholson's to be refurbished.

Some of the bell frame after dismantling.

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Clip 170 Thumbnail image

Video of the Tenor bell being rolled out of the Church ready for loading on the lorry

The wheels just down from the tower . . . .

. . . . . and ready to be loaded on to the lorry

The bells were lifted onto the lorry by a crane attached to the lorry.

You will notice that the 5th and Tenor(the biggest one on the right and the one half behind it) have 2 moulding wires around the bottom of the bells,
but, unusually, none of the others have them.

The bells being loaded onto the lorry; the bell on the right is the Tenor, at 7cwt. & 17lbs (363kg) it is our heaviest bell, the 4th is in the foreground at 4cwt & 2lbs
and the one peeping out between them is the oldest bell, the 5th, cast in 1731and was then the tenor.

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