St Thomas' Church Porch and Bells dedication service
St Thomas Church Bradwell-on-Sea New Porch and Bells
St. Thomas the Apostle
Bradwell on Sea
On Sunday 22nd October 2017, 12.30pm
The Order for the Blessing and Dedication of the Porch Restoration
and the new and restored Bells
was conducted by
The Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell
Bishop of Chelmsford
This service was to dedicate the Church Porch restoration with its new glass doors and windows, and then dedication the two new bells and the associated restoration work on the other bells. The service was conducted by the Rt Revd Steven Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford.
The Porch
The Church Porch is the conclusion of the re-ordering work first started in the year 2000. The new stone floor and glass doors, with the bronze framed windows provide a friendlier and more accessible entrance to the church that now accommodates many community as well as spiritual events. The work was designed by Hilary Brightman Architects and the work carried out by Lodge and Sons builders from Stebbing and the doors by Glass Tec Systems near Waltham Abbey.
The Bells
The bell project started in 2013 when it was considered that bells needed turning due to the amount of wear they have received over the last 270 years. The bell committee bravely suggested that this also provided an opportunity to replace the two smaller bells that had been missing for over a 100 years, thus restoring the tower back to an eight-bell ring. After getting several surveys and estimates, then a year of fundraising and applying for grants, the money was available and work commenced. The work was carried out by John Taylor & Co Loughborough.
Our thanks go out to all who have worked so hard to raise funds and carry out all the work on the porch and bells projects and to all the grant organisations who have so kindly supported these projects for the benefit of our community here in Bradwell-on-Sea.
The History and Reordering of the Porch
The porch is relatively new to Bradwell as it was originally the porch to Shopland church, which was demolished in 1957. It was installed here in about 1960.
Shopland parish church, St Mary Magdalen, was a little Norman church measuring only 40 ft by 19 ft and was built around the 12th century, of rubble and limestone. It had two small windows. Hundreds of years later four more windows were made and during the 13th and 14th centuries the chancel was widened and two windows and a north door were added. In the 15th century it was widened, had a bell tower and our fine timber porch was built.
In the year 2000 our church was reordered. The scheme included the rooms at the rear of the church. Then the enclosing of the porch and the laying of the stone floor was stage two of the work, which has now been completed, the change being the glass outer doors rather than solid oak doors that were originally planned.
The project was funded by the income from a flower festival dedicated to Donna Carter, family and friends’ donations in memory of Hazel Thorpe, private donations and a grant from the Essex Community Foundation from the Bradwell Wind Farm to facilitate the entrance of the church for disabled access.
This is the Porch at Shopland Chuch Shopland Church
The History and Refurbishment of the Bells
The history of the bells of St Thomas is fascinating. We had six bells, five of them dating to 1744. But read this cutting from the Ipswich Journal of Saturday October 6th 1744: THIS is to give Notice to all Lovers of Ringing, that on Tuefday the 9th of this Inftant October, the Stonham Society of Ringers will be at Bradwell near the Sea in Essex, where all well Wifhers to that Noble Art, may hear good Ringing on the new Peal of Eight Bells, lately caft by Mr. Robert Catling, of London, and hung by Mr. John Williams, of Stonham in Suffolk. N.B. Mrs. Tinsley, of the Three Rabbits, is defir'd to prepare Beds for the above Society. (Stonham is near Ipswich) The present tenor is modern – 1948. Our bell frame is the original by John Williams, referred to above, and the inscription on one bell is: “THEODORE ECCLESTON ESQR OF CROWFEILD (sic) IN SUFFOLK GAVE THIS FRAME + R.C. 1744”. And where is Crowfield? – right next to Stonham. So we had an 18th century eight-bell frame. We had five 18th century bells and one from the 20th century. We have proof that in 1744 the frame possessed eight bells, but what happened to the other three? We just do not know. Another mystery is why Theodore Eccleston paid for our frame, and Stonham ringers came to ring our new bells in October 1744. We do know Eccleston was from a wealthy family (his father was a director of the East India Company) and that he was a competent bell ringer, a member of the Ancient Society of College Youths. But what was the connection with Bradwell? The rector of Bradwell from 1739 to 1746 was Henry Anstis. Eccleston knew Anstis - in his Will of 1753 he left “all my Angling rods” to him, but we don’t know the relationship between the two.
So, we had space for eight bells. We had six bells in desperate need of refurbishment – nothing had been done to five of them for many, many years – we also have at the present count 14 ringers. This all pointed to major fundraising to solve several problems at once – make sure our six bells continue to ring out, put history to rights by casting two new bells, and provide for our enthusiastic band to continue the good work. All we needed was £56000.
We have received grants from The Leche Trust, The Sharpe Trust, Allchurches Trust, Heritage Lottery Fund, Essex Heritage Trust and the Essex Association Bell Restoration Fund. The offer from Essex Heritage was a milestone for them – it brought the total they have awarded to projects in Essex to £1 million. Because of this the Trustees offered to increase the offer to fund one of our new bells, with a suitable inscription. So the new treble is the Essex Heritage Trust bell. We ran fund-raising events in the village, and many friends in the village and further afield have been generous with donations. Which means we achieved our total earlier this year. On June 21st a number of us saw our two new bells being cast at the foundry of John Taylor & Co in Loughborough. The existing six went to Loughborough in early July for refurbishment, and our ring of eight – not an augmentation – a restoration - were hung in August.
So, “all Lovers of Ringing”, just listen…..
The new bells are show here in the Chapman Room before installation.
Grants recieved from:
Essex Association of Change Ringers
The Sharpe Trust
The Porch Project
Grants received from
Essex Community Foundation (Bradwell Wind Farm)
Donations in memory of
Donna Carter from the Flower Group festival
Hazel Thorpe from friends and family
The Bell Project
Grants received from
Essex Heritage Trust (bell inscription)
GIFT OF ESSEX HERITAGE TRUST TO ST THOMAS’ CHURCH 2017
Heritage Lottery Fund (East of England)
The Leche Trust
The Sharpe Trust
Allchurches Trust
Essex Association of Change Ringers
Donations in memory of
Brenda Clayden from family and friends (headstock inscription)
IN MEMORY OF BRENDA MARY CLAYDEN (1939-2016) WHO RANG THESE BELLS
Bob Fowles from family (headstock inscription)
FOR BOB FOWLES 1927-2004
Family Bell
‘On tHE Sabbath all to church I call’
BRADWELL-JUXTA-MARE FAMILY BELL
CLAYDEN - JOBBINS – MAIN - LEE – REED – SCURRELL - THORPE