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Ryarsh, St Martin
 Photo: Richard Offen, 2007
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Details of the Bells |
| Bell | Weight (most recent) | Weight (Prior to retuning) | Diameter | Note | Date | Founder | Retuned | ||
| ҂ | 1 | 5-1-16 | 30¼" | D | 1779 | Pack & Chapman, Whitechapel | 1989 Whitechapel | ||
| ҂ | 2 | 5-1-3 | 31⅛" | C | 1616 | Joseph Hatch, Ulcombe, Kent | 1989 Whitechapel | ||
| ҂ | 3 | 6-3-22 | 7-1-22 | 34¾" | B♭ | 1879 | Mears & Stainbank, Whitechapel | 1989 Whitechapel |
Inscriptions |
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Prior to 1879 |
| Bell | Weight (most recent) | Date | Founder | Retuned | Fate | |
| Tenor | 8-1-24 | Mediaeval | Richard Chamberlain | Never | Recast 1879 |
History |
| 1616 | Present middle bell cast. | ||
| 1779 | Present treble cast. | ||
| 1798 | Hasted makes no mention of bells. [1] | ||
| 1879 | The mediaeval tenor was recast and the bells were rehung with all new full circle ringing fittings by Mears & Stainbank with latchet stays and sliders. The timber frame probably dates to this year too. | ||
| 1989 | Bells retuned and rehung for swing chiming with levers, by Whitechapel. The bells had been quite ringable some 3 or 4 decades earlier. | ||
| 2003 | Christopher Pickford inspected the frame and gave an authoritative report. [2] |
| [1] | ('The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent', Edward Hasted) |
| [2] | The wooden bellframe contains reused timbers from earlier frames and in its present form it represents several stages of construction. There are some curved braces from a mediaeval frame (fifteenth-century), with evidence of head struts and transoms. The queen posts - in all four trusses - appear to relate to a reconstruction of the frame in about 1600, when long heads were added. The present heads on the two inner trusses, and the return sections on the north and south sides of the frame, relate to a further reconstruction and repair in the nineteenth-century. (Notes from Pickford, C J) |
| Love's Guide to the Church Bells of Kent | Page updated: 3 April 2020 |