On Sunday December 31st 1749, at a quarter to one in the morning, the Church of St. Mary & St. Wulfad, sited near the present Church, began to collapse.
Fortunately the six bells, which were cast by Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester in 1710, were not damaged.
One bell was hung in a tree for chiming while the present Church, with the tower some eighty feet tall, was built. On June 21st 1758 the new church was consecrated with the six bells installed.
The nineteenth century saw a revival of the Church, both spiritually and in its buildings. The Church clock was replaced and two new trebles were added to make up the present ring of eight.
In 1896, two new trebles bells were cast and tuned together with the old six by John Tailors of Loughborough, which has given us a ring of some character.
The clock was built by Smith & Sons of Derby, at a cost of £195-5-0 and was started on Ascension Day 14th May 1896. It is controlled by the three pin type of "Grimthorpe" escapement. This is the simplified version of the escapement designed by Sir Edmond Beckett Denison (afterwards Lord Grimthorpe) for use on "Big Ben" in 1850, and it has been used very widely for clocks ever since. Now that there were eight bells in the tower, it was possible to add the quarter chimes.
These are known as Cambridge chimes as they were first used at St. Mary Cambridge and strike in the following order; -