St Michaels has a peel of three bells, a D# bell cast in 1626 by Hugh II Watts, a C# bell cast in 1595 by Newcombe and Watts and a B cast by Hugh II Watts in 1634. There is also a Sanctus bell that was recast in 1958.
There was space to add two more bells so 17 years ago we applied to the Keltek trust (who repurpose old bells) to see if they could find 2 suitable bells. It took until the autumn of 2019 to find a suitable match. The new bells came from Trinity house and were originally on bouys at sea. Unfortunately there is no record as to where they were located.
The two new bells are an F# cast by John Warner and sons in 1911 and an E cast by Gillet and Johnson in 1948.
Whilst we were adding the new bells we have replaced the original ropes, the mufflers and some of the staves as well as doing some essential maintenance. A rope was put back onto the sanctus bell that the Bell Captain says hasn’t been rung for over 15 years. You can now hear this ringing out before services calling the congregation into church.
We received grants from The Keltek Trust, The Sharpe trust, The Peterborough Diocesan Guild of Church Bell ringers and the Central council of church bell ringers totalling almost £6,000 we managed to fund raise the balance of around £10,000 through generous donations from both the congregation and their family.
There is a plaque to thank those people and organisations that made it financially possible to add the two new bells to the church. The plaque is constructed from oak with Meranti butterflies to stabilise the split. It will stay on display in the church for a few weeks before being put away with the bells at the top of the tower.
