History
A history of the bells and frame of St Michael’s Stone
by Chris Pickford
STONE, Staffs: The bellframeThe Church
The present building replaces an old church that collapsed (the church guide suggests unreliably that it was weakened structurally by the bells installed in 1710) on 31-31 December 1749. The present church was built under an Act of Parliament of 1753 and consecrated on 21 June 1758. There is a stone dated 1758 over the main western entrance under the tower.
The architect was William Robinson of London (c.1720-1775), architect to the Board of Works, and the work was supervised from 1754-8 by William Baker of Audlem (1705-1771). The cost amounted to over £4835.3.9. The style is Gothic with Y-tracery in the windows and battlements.
The work is documented in the parish records, which include the Act of Parliament 1753 (D4605/3/3-4), articles of agreement with George Gibson of Buxton, mason, 1754 (D4605/3/5), articles of agreement with Charles Trubshaw of Little Haywood and Samuel Webb of Brewood, builders, 1754 (D4605/3/6), order book of the Trustees 1753-8 (D4605/3/13) and account of the costs of rebuilding c.1758 (D4605/3/14-5)
The tower
The west tower is part of the church of 1754-8, largely unaltered. It stands within the west end of the church (i.e. embraced) and it is flanked by wings of two storeys containing stairs to the galleries and offices. The lower stages are in brick - stone faced - but above the clock room (including the belfry stage) the tower is built in stone. The beams and woodwork supporting the clock-room and bell-chamber floors appear to be original. Access to all levels is by spiral stair or vice in the north west corner.
The tower is in four stages internally, with the vestibule to the main entrance at ground level, a first-floor ringing room, clock chamber and bell chamber. Externally it is in three stages, with the west door and main entrance in the lower stage below the second stage which has a quatrefoiled west window. There is a band of carved stonework across the west face of the tower at the level of the battlements to the roof of the church, and above the third stage has the clock dials and the tall Y-traceried belfry windows. The top of the tower has an embattled parapet and crocketed corner pinnacles.
The clock
The present clock is a three-train flatbed movement by John Smith & Sons of Derby. It was started on 14 May 1896 as recorded on an engraved brass plate affixed to the frame. The clock has Grimthorpe’s gravity escapement on the going train. It shows the time on three illuminated dials and sounds the hours and Cambridge (or Westminster) quarters on the bells. The clock is in an enclosed case on the south side of the clock chamber.
A clock is mentioned in an agreement with the sexton in 1758 (quoted in the church guide). The 1830 Visitation return also mentions a clock in good order. When John Harris visited Stone in June 1875 he noted in his article in Notes & Queries that the church had a clock “of birdcage form, with quarter chimes” signed “Sleight Pershore Fecit”. This would have been by Thomas Steight (d.1733/4) or his son John (1696-1777) were provincial makers of turret clocks and chimes of some importance. They published a list or catalogue of their work in 1752 but the clock at Stone is not mentioned, perhaps implying that it was supplied later and at the time of the rebuilding of the church in 1754-8.
There are papers about the installation of the present clock in the parish records -correspondence with John Smith & Sons of Derby re clock 1894-1904 (D4605/3/18-29), papers re clock 1896-1904 (D4605/3/30-33), Minute book of the clock committee 1895-6 (D5969/7/1) and printed accounts and list of subscribers (D5969/7/2).
The order book of the Trustees for rebuilding the Church 1753-8 (D4605/3/13), account of the costs of rebuilding c.1758 (D4605/3/14-5), or the Vestry order book 1745-1772 (D4605/4/1) may provide further information on Steight’s clock.
The bells: weights etc
Brief details of the bells Dove’s national bell register (weights and diameters etc) are as follows:
| Bell | Weight | Nominal | Note | Diameter | Founder and Date | Canons |
| 1 | 4-1-17 | 1643.0 | G | 25.00" | John Taylor & Co, 1890 | Yes |
| 2 | 4-1-21 | 1534.0 | F# | 25.75" | John Taylor & Co, 1890 | Yes |
| 3 | 4-3-16 | 1345.0 | E | 28.00" | Abraham Rudhall I, 1710 | Removed |
| 4 | 5-1-26 | 1205.0 | D | 29.50" | Abraham Rudhall I, 1710 | Removed |
| 5 | 5¾cwt | 1077.0 | C | 31.50" | Abraham Rudhall I, 1710 | Removed |
| 6 | 7cwt | 1010.0 | B | 33.50" | Abraham Rudhall I, 1710 | Removed |
| 7 | 7½cwt | 909.0 | A | 35.50" | Abraham Rudhall I, 1710 | Removed |
| 8 | 11cwt | 808.0 | G | 39.50" | Abraham Rudhall I, 1710 | Removed |
These details - not recorded in detail at the time of my visit - are from Lynam’s book (inscriptions of the back six) and from casual inspection (the trebles) and need to be checked for exact wording and layout
| 1. | MDCCCXC. |
| Waist: (Taylor's circular mark) | |
| 2. | Waist: (Taylor's circular mark) |
| 3. | WHEN YOU MEE RING I'LE SWEETLY SING A (bell) R 1710 |
| 4. | ABR: RUDHALL CAST US ALL 1710 |
| 5. | PROSPERITY TO ALL OUR BENEFACTORS 1710 |
| 6. | PEACE AND GOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD A (bell) R 1710 |
| 7. | GOD SAVE QUEEN ANN & THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AS BY LAW ESTABLISHED 1710 |
| 8. | W : TAYLOR T : ATHERLY I : ADAMS R : HAWES CH : WARDENS 1710 |
The six bells cast by Abraham Rudhall I of Gloucester in 1710 doubtless replaced earlier bells, references to which are most likely to be contained in the churchwardens accounts for 1634-1684 (D4605/2/1). The Rudhall bells hung in the tower of the old Priory church until 1749 and they were later installed in the present tower in about 1758. In 1830 the six bells were reported to be in good order. They were apparently quarter turned and rehung c.1870.
In 1890 two more bells were added. The “record of the Diocese 1890” in the Lichfield Diocesan Church Calendar 1891 p.164 reported “The bells have been rehung and two new ones added to complete the octave”. The work was not reported in the Bell News.The fittings
The bells have standard Taylor ringing fittings of 1890, with later ball bearings fitted in 1936. These consist of wooden stocks with plate gudgeons (also known as renewable gudgeons), wheels with iron wheel stays, stays and sliders and clappers suspended from independent crown staples. The two trebles (with canons) are secured to their stocks with forged iron straps etc. The older bells are hung with four bolts, two through the stock and two outside.
The bellframe: description
The bellchamber floor is at the level of an offset at the top of the brickwork on three sides (excepting the east wall) of the tower. It is supported on two substantial east-west beams and a set of joists running at right-angles to the beams. The frame sits on the floor.
The frame itself is on the quarter plan (an inverse of Bellframes 8.2) - commonly used from the late seventeenth- to the early nineteenth-centuries - with an anti-clockwise rope-circle. The bells are hung in opposed pairs swinging side-by-side, with adjacent pairs hung at right-angles. In this frame the pairs are 1-8, 2-3, 4-5 and 6-7. The tenor and treble occupy the north-west corner of the tower by the entrance to the bell chamber from the spiral stair. The stair was constructed with an opening in the stonework around the door to accommodate the frame and at this point the pit-end for the treble has a sill curved to fit round the door. The short piece of timber originally linking the leads has been removed. In 1889 John Taylor noted “a cant at the end of the treble pit - very awkward to get in the tower”.
There are double trusses side-by-side between bells 4 and 5, apparently to narrow the pits to the required width. This appears to be an original feature. There are short spacer-pieces between the trusses with dove-tail joints into the heads.
The sills are framed on one level, as are the heads. The right-angle joints in the heads are mortised with single pegs, although the head between bells 2 and 3 has dovetailed joints instead. The sills are probably mortised too (not examined). The braces are tenoned into the heads and sills with two pegs top and bottom.
In construction, the frame is of standard braced type (Bellframes type 6.A). All the internal trusses are of this type, but there are jack-braces (i.e. as Bellframes type 6.B) in all the outer angles except at the western end of the pit of the third bell. There are no jack-braces to the inner diagonal braces in the external trusses.
The frame appears to have been heavily cut about, but the extent of this is perhaps less than appears at first sight. In several places fresh pieces of timber have been spliced into the heads to replace the original woodwork. There are deep squared cut-outs - clearly intended to provide clearance for the swing of the clappers - in the ends of each pit. These are quite crudely done.
In most pits (including the treble pit but not in that of the second) there are what seem to be contemporary clearance grooves in the heads, cut out to allow room for the lips of the bells to clear the frame. These are all nicely done, and all by the same hand. However, they do not seem to be necessary for the size of the bells in the pits - in each case the bell diameter is comfortably less than the full width of the pit - and their positions are some distance further from the centre of rotation than the present hangs require. This is explained below, but the current bell diameters and pit-widths are as follows:
| Bell | Diameter | Pit-width | Bell | Diameter | Pit-width | |
| 1. | 25" | 26" | 5. | 31½" | 33" | |
| 2. | 25¾" | 28" | 6. | 33½" | 35" | |
| 3. | 28" | 29" | 7. | 35½" | 38½" | |
| 4. | 29½" | 31½" | 8. | 39½" | 42" |
A sketch plan drawn by J.W. Taylor in 1889 shows that the cut-outs indicate earlier hanging positions as until the augmentation in 1890 the six bells occupied the pits now used for bells 1 and 3 to 7 (i.e. the pits now housing the second and tenor were previously vacant).
Using the pre-1889 configuration of the frame, the relative dimensions were as follows:
| Bell | Diameter | Pit-width | Bell | Diameter | Pit-width | |
| 1. | 28" | 26" | 5. | 33½" | 33" | |
| 2. | --- | 28" | 6. | 35½"" | 35" | |
| 3. | 29½" | 29" | 7. | 39½" | 38½" | |
| 4. | 31½" | 31½" | 8. | --- | 42" |
The frame is of very solid construction and of substantial proportions. It stands to a height of 46½” (1.18m) from the floor. The sills are 9¼” deep and 11¼” wide (235 x 285mm). The heads are 8¼” deep by 7½” (210 x 190mm). The braces are 13½” (340mm) across the flat.
Bellframe: comments
I came expecting to find a six-bell frame that had been subsequently altered to accommodate eight bells, and under the impression (from comments made in advance of my visit) that it might be an older frame (perhaps of 1710) that was modified and reused when the present tower was built in 1758. Obviously, I bore these possibilities in mind while looking at the frame itself.
My strong impression, though, is that this frame is not only contemporary with the tower but also of one build - i.e. built as an eight-bell frame in 1758. Its construction is consistent throughout and there is no real evidence that it has been significantly altered. The outer truss on the west side - where modification might have been needed to accommodate the trebles - is clearly part of the original structure. Only the head between bells 2 and 3 (which is dove-tailed rather than mortised) offers the slightest hint of an alteration, but even this has the contemporary clearance grooves in the pit of the third.
It is a big frame - and the 1889 sketch plan makes it clear that it was built to house larger bells. The frame would accommodate comfortably a ring of slightly heavier weight (with a tenor of, say, 14 cwt). I am inclined to think that it was built for the present bells when the tower was rebuilt, but with the idea in mind that the ring might be not only augmented (with vacant pits being provided for two additional bells) but also increased in weight at some future date. Probably the money ran out.
As to who made it, the plan resembles that of frames that once existed at Lancaster Priory (c.1744 or c.1755) and Great Budworth (1733). Both are likely to have been made by the Wrigleys of Manchester who hung many of the Rudhall peals in the north west and built up a substantial bellhanging business that flourished between the 1720s and the Napoleonic Wars. The two examples mentioned were both anti-clockwise eight-bell frames on the quarter plans with the identical arrangement of pairs of bells.
It was my initial thought that the Wrigleys may have made the Stone frame in 1757-8. However, although subsequent documentary confirmed the date of the frame as 1757 it has also revealed that the maker was “Thomas Sneyd of Madely Bellframer” – and not Wrigley - who contracted to hang the six bells in an eight-bell frame.
NOTES FROM THE PARISH RECORDSOrder book of the Trustees 1753-8 (D4605/3/13)
Minutes from 12 June 1753; Meeting 31 July 1753 approved the design “drawn by Mr Robinson of Greenwich in the Gothick Taste”; 8 January 1754 refers to alterations in the design for the steeple; 12 March 1754 work on dismantling the old church and steeple halted; 25 April 1754 agreed contract with Trubshaw and Webb to build the church and steeple according to the plans sent down by Mr. Robinson, mentioning that the contractors were to have all the old materials “except the Bell frames and all materials belonging to the said Bell Frames”; 7 May 1754 article with Trubshaw and Webb to be signed; 9 August 1754 foundation laid by Mr. Gibson to be inspected by Mr. William Hiorn of Warwick and Mr. William Baker of Highfields; 30 August 1754 cancellation of agreement with Gibson; 7 February 1755 progress reported; 25 September 1755 progress report from Baker; 20 July 1756 Ordered that the sum of Fifty pounds be paid to Mr. Thomas Sneyd of Madely Bellframer on his compleating frames for Eight Bells and hanging Six in a proper Manner, the scantlings to be such as the Trustees and Mr. Baker shall approve of and the whole to be finished on or before the 25th July 1757 (the Trustees allowing him the Materials belonging to the old Bells and finding him Bells Clappers and Ropes ready for hanging) and the said Thomas Sneyd doth hereby agree to compleat the same for the said sum in a workmanlike manner on or before the Time aforesaid testified by his signing hereof [signed] Thomas Sneyd”; 20 September 1757 Baker to order four Copper Fans … to be fixed on top of the four pinnacles of the tower”, and resolutions concerning timber for the belfry floor; 6 June 1758 salary to Stephen Goodall of four guineas a year for taking care of and winding up the clock, ringing daily the evening bell at the usual time and the 4 o’clock bell from the 5th November to Christmas as usual [and other duties]; 25 April 1758 payment of five guineas to Mr. Steight for his work on the clock; 27 March 1759 clock to be returned to Pershore with complaints to the clockmaker [meeting re clock business not entirely clear - may need to be checked, and also look for earlier minutes]
Includes (at back) costs of Trustees in procuring Act of Parliament (£205.11.10), 1753; Agreement with George Gibson of Buxton, mason, for taking down the old church and for building the new one to the plans of … Robison (sic) of Greenwich, architect, 7 May 1754, including detailed clauses; Conveyance of site, 30 October 1753; Agreement with Charles Trubshaw of Little Haywood and Samuel Webb of Brewood, builders, for pulling down the old church and remove a foundation lately laid by Mr.Gibson and erect a new church according to plans and to the satisfaction of William Baker of Highfields near Audlem, and referring to “all the lofts in the steeple to be laid with good new Oak Summers and Joices according to the proportions following (To wit) the two Floor Beams for the Ringing Loft sixteen foot long and twelve inches by nine inches square, Two floor Beams for the Chime Loft seventeen feet long and twelve inches by ten inches square, Two floor beams for the Bell Chamber Nineteen feet long and fourteen inches by twelve inches square, the Joise for the Ringing Loft and Chime loft to be five feet six inches long and four inches by three inches square and the Joyces for the Bell Chamber six feet long and five inches by three inches square etc, all to be varied if Mr. Robinson or Mr. Baker think proper; also other agreements and documents relating to the church and churchyard to 1757; Copy of article on the Rudhall bells and Steight clock from Notes and Queries stating “The treble bell has lost one of its canons. There is plenty of room in the tower for two more bells, and the frames are ready provided. The clock (with a face on the west side) inscribed “Sleight Pershore Fecit” and is of the bird cage form, it chimes the quarters on the treble and third, and strikes on the tenor”; Copy of advertisement to buildings for rebuilding the church and steeple, from The London Evening Post 30 June 1753
Vestry order book 1745-1772 (D4605/4/1)Searched 1754-9 (mainly poor law business - nothing about the church)
Account of the costs of rebuilding c.1758 (D4605/3/14)
Accounts to the 5th of July 1759 - expenditure £4835.3.9, receipts £4837.14.6. Main payments to Trubshaw and Webb (total around £2500), Mr. Sneyd for hanging the Bells £50, Gibson’s bill £212.11.0., and “yet to be paid … For a Clock [no sum]”
Church Improvement Committee minutes, 1885-1890 (D4605/3/16-17)
Improvement plans by Charles Lynam and others in 1885, but plans of R. Scrivener & Sons were selected 4 Jan 1886. Scrivener was the architect (paid £125.12.0. architect’s commission; Lynam paid £15 for plans). N. Barlow was the contractor (£2952.0.0); Accounts include £148 to John Taylor & Co for two new bells and hanging old ones