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The bells will ring once more at St Denys Church, after the community of St Dennis overwhelmingly supported an 18-month project to extensively renovate and repair them.
After raising over £60,000 in just under a year and thanks to the hard work of Taylor’s Bell Foundry of Loughborough, they are ready for a special celebration service to bless and rededicate them this Sunday (July 14).
The Grade II listed church, built on the site of an Iron Age fort, underwent a rebuild in 1847 and again in 1985 following the devastating effects of a major fire which luckily spared its 14th century tower.
Within are a peal of eight bells, the oldest dating back as far as the 1400s, whose chime fell silent after an investigation ordered by Steve Bradbury, chairman of St Dennis Bellringers, found them to be in a perilous position.
“The first time I went into the bell tower, the bells to me looked as though they were in a bad state of repair,” he told CHAOS Radio. “I asked for a survey to be done and that came back saying don’t ring [them] as they could fall. They were in that bad of a state.
“It was then a case of right, how do we get them repaired? We contacted a couple of bell foundries but John Taylor’s in Loughborough had cast previous bells here – going back over 100 years – and they gave us a quote. That was for just over £63,000 plus VAT and we thought ‘ouch, that’s a lot of money’.
“We had a public meeting in the village. Lots of people turned up and it was overwhelming that they wanted the bells to be ringing again. We formed a committee to fundraise and I was expecting it to take three to five years to raise that money but we were very, very lucky.
“We put out a survey and it was really heartening to hear stories of how ‘the bells rang at my wedding’. One old lady, bless her, said ‘I want the bells to ring at my funeral’. When the bells ring out the village hears. It’s a comforting sound that there’s the church and there’s the ringing of the bells.”
The community came together to arrange a number of fundraising events, including coffee mornings, a pudding evening and concerts, supported by the likes of St Dennis’ carnival committee and Methodist Church.
The local reaction and accompanying grant funding meant the ‘three to five year’ target was achieved in considerably less time and, in December 2023, an order went in with the foundry.
“I think the first time [the parishioners] complained that the bells weren’t being rung was for the death of Queen Elizabeth II,” said Julia Clarke, chair of St Dennis Parish Council and of the St Dennis and Nanpean Community Trust.
“We found out that they weren’t in safe order and that it would have been a huge catastrophe. With my community trust hat on, we were more than happy to provide a large portion of the funds that were required to be able to maintain the bells and have them put back into satisfactory order.
“The people of the parish really want to hear the bells, not just for a Sunday service but also for when somebody is married, christened or unfortunately when somebody passes away. It’s all part of the parish and, where the church is situated, everybody hears the bells when they are ringing.
“To hear them will put a big lift into the spirits of all the parishioners in the village. You’ll still get somebody who’ll complain on a Sunday morning because they’re sleeping off a few too many pints but to have the church bells ringing again is absolutely fantastic and it will bring back a sense of community once again.”
A special celebration service for the blessing and rededication of the St Denys Church bells is to take place on Sunday, July 14 at 9.30 am with the Right Reverend Bishop Hugh Nelson, Bishop of St Germans, to lead the service.
All donors, supporters, grant funders, local bell ringers and village groups have been invited to share in this special event, with new bell ringers having begun their training under the guidance of Phil Tremaine at St Columb Major Church.
“Come along and have a try,” said Bradbury. “Anybody can do it from any age. If you can stand up you can pull a bell. I know the school has been very supportive of the project. It would be lovely to have some youngsters up here who want to have a go and anybody else, too.
“It is another thing that is open to the community, you don’t have to be a member of this church. It’s good for your physical fitness and for your mental well-being, and we can have a good social time as well.”
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