THE BELLS OF ST. MARY THE VIRGIN, EWELL

Ewell has had a ring of bells since the sixteenth century, as shown in an inventory of the furnishings of the parish church made in 1548: "In primis iiij belles of one ring and a saunce [Sanctus] bell". These would not have been rung in the way we are familiar with today, as change-ringing and the whole wheel that makes the art possible were not known at that time. There were five bells in the tower until 1767 when they were taken to Lester and Pack's foundry in London where they were re-cast into a ring of six weighing 51 cwt. 2 qr. 15 lb. Two of the new bells, the Tenor and the Treble, were ''Maidens" - bells that do not need tuning- and the other four were tuned by chipping pieces off the lip. The diameter at the lip the tenor was 3 ft. 7 ins. and of the treble 2 ft. 5 1/4 ins. Three of these bells remain in the current ring. Lester and Pack cast many bells hung in Surrey and those at Ewell are the 1ast to still be in place. The bells were re-hung in the manner of a modern ring, with a whole wheel and slider equipment. They cost £77.16s.5 1/2d. The bill was paid between 16 April and 2l August 1770. With the additional cost of the bell-frame, £69.15s.7d, and other expenses, the total cost was £160.2s.9 1/2d. (£16325 at 2006 prices).

By 1830 it had become necessary to re-cast the fourth bell; presumably because it was cracked. The work was performed by Thomas Mears, the successor of Lester & Pack, at the London foundry, now at Whitechapel. The weight of the bell, 8 cwt. 19 lbs, was unchanged.

In 1848 the six bells were transferred to the new church and re-hung in the frame from the old building. They were hung so that the ropes fell neither in a regular circle nor in order but descended in the order Treble-2-3-5-4-Tenor. Their original tower is all that now remains of the old Church, although one of the arguments for its demolition in 1847 had been that the tower was unsafe!

The bells were poorly maintained and by 1889 the old fittings were disintegrating and the fifth and the tenor bells had both cracked in the crown. The fifth also had three canons missing. On 18 November 1889 Mears & Stainbank, the latest successors to the Lester & Pack foundry, recommended that the fifth bell should be re-cast, and the other five quarter-turned. The fittings were almost unusable - the ironwork was eaten through by rust, the headstocks were pieced in many places, and the bearings were very worn causing the bells to ring unsteadily, placing excessive strain on the frame. The wheels were as old as the bells, and were split and too weak to repair. The cost of restoring the bells came to £ll4 and included re-casting the fifth bell, six sets of new fittings of elm headstocks with steel gudgeons and gun-metal bearings, wheels, braces, stays and sliders, rollers, and five reversed staples for the clappers of the quarter-turned bells; also included was the cost of removing, renovating and re-tuning the bells. A new frame of best seasoned English Oak to hold eight bells, in anticipation of completing the octave, would cost an additional £73. The Founders also provided an estimate for two extra treble bells at £83, thus bringing the total cost of the work to £270.10s.3d.

By December 1889 the tenor bell had also cracked and needed recasting at a cost of £35.11s.9d and something had to be done. The Churchwardens appealed for funds. The work which included the re-casting of the fifth and tenor bells, providing a new oak frame and fittings for the six bells; and adding two new treble bells to complete the octave was carried out in 1890 and the account dated 23 June totalled £301.14s.4d. (£22821 at 2006 prices).

In 1925 the whole ring was re-hung on ball bearings in the same frame by Gillett and Johnson of Croydon, the only time since 1767 that the bells have been overhauled by a bell-founder other than the Whitechapel foundry of Lester & Pack, and successors.

Some of the bells have interesting inscriptions, for example:

• No. 3 At proper times my voice I will raise and sound to my benefactor's praise;
• No. 5 Our voices shall with joyful sound make hills and valleys echo round.
• No. 7 To honour both of God and King our voices shall in consort ring, recast 1890

In 1969 the Whitechapel Bell Foundry Ltd, as it had then become, once again had to restore the bells to full working order, at an estimated cost of £2500. The main work was to replace the old oak bell frame by a new iron one to rest on new steel girders firmly grouted into the tower walls. The bells were finally re-hung by Christmas 1970.

The bells had a narrow escape when fire damaged the north aisle of the church on 25 November 1973, and ringing was suspended for a few weeks.

The various accounts of the Churchwardens and the Vestry Minute Books have some interesting entries relating to the bells e.g

Traditions

Rules of the Belfry

The Ringers

Tower Leaders:

Terminology

Peals