[Bell Historians] Navestock, Essex

[David Sloman]

The old bell frame should still exist, it was at The Passmore Edwards
Museum London but apparently was moved to Woodham Ferrers County Council
Museum in the 1980's. I haven't seen it since it was removed from the
tower.It consists of four pits with the treble hung diagonally above.
Can't add anything about bell numbers prior to 1862.
David Sloman

On Fri, Sep 18, 2026 at 12:57 PM oliver Lee via Bell-historians <
bell-historians at lists.ringingworld.co.uk> wrote:

> It's not a problem Chelmsford is only an Hour's bus ride for me and I
> would be more then happy to see what the record office have to say about
> them, I have always taken something of a passing interest in these bells
> too especially as it is one of the only towers within the Brentwood area
> that I haven't had the pleasure of ringing at. I am also one of the
> Volunteer researchers at my local museum so I am quite used to helping
> people with enquiries so like I say it won't be any skin off my nose at
> all.
> Regards
> Oliver lee
> P/s I would also recommend talking to David Sloman, he was bell advisor to
> the EACR at the time of the 1982 work and I'd imagine he's probably got a
> lot of information about the both the old frame and the bells themselves.
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Bell-historians <bell-historians-bounces at lists.ringingworld.co.uk>
> on behalf of Richard Smith via Bell-historians <
> bell-historians at lists.ringingworld.co.uk>
> *Sent:* Friday, September 18, 2026 09:52
> *To:* bell-historians at lists.ringingworld.co.uk <
> bell-historians at lists.ringingworld.co.uk>
> *Cc:* Richard Smith <richard at ex-parrot.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [Bell Historians] Navestock, Essex
>
>
> On Thu 17/09/2026 21:52, Oliver Lee via Bell-historians wrote:
>
> > According to a 1458 Inventory (also in Deedes and Walters) the tower had
> > a ring of three and a Sanctus bell so I'd imagine they were probably
> > made into four in 1637 when the present 3^rd  and tenor were cast before
> > being augmented to five in 1862 by Mears,
>
> You may be right, but without further supporting evidence, this is very
> much a guess.  It's not unusual for bells to be recast and rural rings
> of five were common long before 1862.  Similarly, rings of four were
> common long before 1637.  This date, when we know Miles Graye cast two
> bells for Navestock, coincides with when five-bell ringing was really
> catching on, and we see lots of augmentations to five at this sort of
> time.  How do we know Graye didn't cast three bells, one of which needed
> recasting in 1862?  I'm not saying this was the case, but it seems
> another plausible possibility.
>
> It's fine for historians to say they don't know, and this is generally
> preferable to weaving a narrative out of minimal information, as that
> then risks becoming accepted as the truth without further critical
> analysis.
>
> In this particular case, there are at least three places we could look
> for further evidence.  The Whitechapel daybook for 1862 may mention
> whether or not an old treble was traded in.  The frame that was removed
> in 1981 may have been described in enough detail to know whether it had
> five pits before 1862.  The churchwardens' accounts and vestry minutes
> exist for the period leading up to the 1862 work, and will likely have
> entries for the 1862 work and earlier expenses which may indicate how
> many bells there were.
>
> Of course I'm not suggesting that anyone here should go out and look at
> these records for me, simply because I'm curious about them.   But there
> are enough people on this list who do this type of research that it
> seemed worth asking whether anyone had found any additional evidence.
>
> RAS
>
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