'The Church Bells of England 1912' on Million Books Project

[Brian Meldon]

I agree that it is always best to see the source material first hand.
Most of the information appears to be correct where it can be
confirmed however other inconsistency in the 1552 lists exists because
they were compiled by many different people in the first place. Also
in the Rochford lists no bells were to be left with the churches, all
were allocated `to use at Kyngs plesure'. However many bells in the
list are known to have remained in the churches and some are still
there today! The reason for this was the change of monarch and
therefore a change of policy in regard to removing goods from
Churches. Most of the small items of value were taken but it would
have taken some time to arrange for the bells to be removed. It is
known however that one bell was taken from Canewdon. The records show
that successful legal action was taken by the Canewdon Churchwardens
to recover both goods and land taken by the crown and that they
eventually received £40 compensation for a bell that had been thus taken. 
Brian Meldon