[Bell Historians] Burton Holy Trinity

[Chris Pickford]

I saw this bell in the tower on 31 May 1971. I was travelling from Leicester with Andrew Wilby to a ringers' get-together at chez David Wilford at Hilton, near Burton. Driving past the church - which had already been partially demolished - we found that the site was more or less unprotected and saw that the tower door was open. No H&S in those days! We climbed up the steps to the bell chamber, where we found someone else up there already - clearly not working for the demolition contractor as it was a Sunday afternoon on a Bank Holiday weekend! He offered to sell us the bell for some ridiculously cheap price

At the time I noted: "At the church of the Holy Trinity, Burton, which was being demolished, there was a large single bell cast by Taylors in 1887 weighing 40-0-26. It was fitted with TW/EH/PG/PB/ECA. It had not been swung for many years, and its sale is now imminent". I later saw the bell (marked 40-0-5 in chalk) in Taylors' foundry at Loughborough, on 28 June 1972. 

The previous Holy Trinity bell (Taylor 1869) later became the tenor as Goole, as already noted.

There is a contemporary account of the spire and bell: The handsome spire of this church has now been completed. It cost £1000; and is the gift of a parishioner. A magnificent bell, weighing 42 cwt, has been placed in the tower. The entire cost (£300) was collected by a committee of working men, resident in the town of Burton and neighbourhood (Lichfield Diocesan Church Calendar 1888 "record of the Diocese 1887" p.151)

Another story about this bell concerns Ron Dove, who worked at one of the Burton breweries in the 1920s. I think it concerns this bell (not completely sure as I don't know whether Holy Trinity had a clock), but certainly a large bell in Burton. Being over 2 tons, the Holy Trinity bell was in the Great Bells list in earlier editions of Dove. I once asked him about it, and he said "I remember that bell. I was 'nesting' with a redhead in a house nearby, and when the clock struck 2 I thought I had better leave. I rushed out, and it was only when I got home I realised I'd left my bicycle behind"

CP           
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