Fugglestone St Peter in Wiltshire was once a very small village in its own right but has since been swallowed up by the considerably larger settlement of Wilton (which itself posseses a superb 8cwt 6 in a splendid Italienesque church!) The small, ancient little church at Fugglestone, at the South end of Wilton on the road to Salisbury, still survives and is a fascinating little building, seeped in history, with box pews and many ornate memorials, and is the last gas-lit church in Britain!
Take a look at the turret and wonder how they managed to fit a ring of 3 in.... Well somehow they did, and quite spectacularly as well!! The frame is an ingenious 2-tier wooden structure, with the treble on the top. Quite how the bell hangers of the time installed the three bells and their frame up there and with no obvious trapdoor or opening is almost beyond belief but they did! The front 2 were cast in 1628 by local founder John Dawton; however, details of the tenor are scant - it is inscribed with "T Lander, Wilton, 1839." T Lander was a local builders' merchant and it is likely that the bell was supplied to him by Jefferies and Price of Bristol.
The bells are devoid of stays and sliders, and there were no pulleys to be seen either, and the tuning is that of the front 3 of a ring of 5. The rope holes, especially those for the tenor, are also too small to accommodate the sallies! The ropes for the two trebles also fall 2 inches apart - perhaps you can make out in the darkness the small wooden guide for the treble rope (it appears at about 1:57.) The amount of dust, rubble and birds droppings in the tower was pretty spectacular as well, and note how the bells are accessed - through a small wooden screen via a ladder!
All in all, a most fascinating visit but not one for the faint hearted! Unfortunately it was too dark upstairs to really pick out on camera very much of what was upstairs in terms of bells, inscriptions, and fittings, etc, but hopefully will nevertheless give a good indicator of what is up that tower - a small 3, unringable and derelict, in an intriguing wooden frame with mainly original fittings. :-)
Tenor ~3cwt in E
dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?s...
This video features 5 intrepid KZfaqrs, four of whom are regular uploaders: Simon Edwards (simonbellringer,) Aaron Moulder (anonmonen,) Nick Bowden (nwbowden,) Jack Pease (bellminsterboy,) & Alex Hosking (hoskingalex)