[Bell Historians] Collapsed towers/ Bellhouses that exist today

[John Camp]

At 19:21 on 10 October 2003, Alan J.Birney wrote:

> I came across some info on the web the other day that St Mary, 
> Princes Risborough had six bells in the tower till the early 1800s 
> when the tower collapsed-the six were supposed to date from 1552.
> I was wondering if anyone knew anything of them-they are not 
> hung in the Rebuilt tower.

A. H. Cocks, in "Bells of Buckinghamshire" (1897), says that the six
bells were destroyed with the tower in 1803. He cites Lipscomb "The
History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham" (1847) and Browne
Willis (1682 - 1760). One bell is recorded in 1552. Five are recorded
in 1637. The sixth seems to have arrived in or after 1752.

John Camp