Monday, 18th March, 2024 Spring sunshine made a welcome appearance to welcome our two bell hangers from John Taylors. They will be with us for three weeks. The first task is to install the steel bell frame into the belfry so, on arrival, they began to dig out the pockets in the tower wall into […]

Thursday, 25th January, 2024 On a damp, chilly January morning, twenty-five villagers and friends boarded a bus to visit the John Taylor’s Foundry in Loughborough. The purpose of the visit was principally to witness the casting of our tenor bell, the largest of the six weighing in at 9cwt. At midday, we gathered on the […]

Tuesday, 19th December The new bell frame will be lower in the tower and in order to allow the sound of the bells to broadcast from the belfry windows, it was necessary to remove some of the flooring under the ancient bell frame which is still insitu. The first task was the removal of centuries […]

Tuesday, 31st October Paul from Taylors Foundry arrived to construct and install a new belfry floor in preparation for the installation of the steel bell frame which is now underway in Loughborough. This new floor will be just below the bell frame and will allow access to the bells for maintenance. When the timber and […]

Monday, 2nd October Rodells Limited of St Albans arrived first thing this morning to install a lightning conductor to the church tower. This will become essential once the new steel bell frame is fitted. Fortunately, the wind of recent days had dropped which allowed the men to abseil down the tower wall in order to […]

Friday 4th August    The lorry to transport the bells to the Foundry arrived bright and early as did our bell hanger and our wonderful band of helpers. Conveying the bells from inside the church, negotiating the steps in and -out of the porch was tricky but carefully carried out and within a short time our […]

Thursday 3rd August   Now that the bells were safely lowered, they were ready for inspection by our village community. The Bishop of Dunwich, The RR Dr Mike Harrison, came to St Margaret’s at 6.00 pm to conduct a service alongside our Rector, Rev’d Philip Merry so that the bells might be blessed by the Bishop […]

Tuesday 1st August  An early start and the welcome arrival of a second bell hanger from John Taylor. The two men worked late into the day preparing for the lowering in the morning.  Wednesday 2nd August   The five bells start coming down. Our oldest bell, c.1450, has been in the tower for 600 years.  By […]

Monday, 31st July 2023 The lowering of the bells. Our first bell-hanger arrived at St Margaret’s to be greeted by a small band of willing helpers. The first day was given over to clearing out the belfry and raising the necessary equipment up into the belfry. Much of the debris was removed by tossing it […]