The Tower From the South West

Bell Tower

The most interesting thing to note about this tower is the fact that it was built in 1773, almost three hundred years after the rest of the church was begun. It was made in the same perpendicular style as the rest of the church and decorated in a similar fashion so that it would blend in well with the older parts of the church. The tower has three stages and each stage has a different type of window like the arrow slit of a castle. The first floor windows have typical perpendicular tracery, but the lights themselves are bricked up. The second floor houses the belfry which contains the church bells. The windows on this floor are louvre windows where it is not necessary to allow much light into the belfry, but the windows must be at least partially open to allow sound of the bells to escape from the tower. The peal of six bells was cast by Rudhall of Gloucester, forty years before the present tower was built. At the base of the tower one can see a mark carved into the stone. The mark consists of an arrow pointing to a horizontal bar. This is not a mass dial (a simple medieval sun dial to mark the times of mass) nor is it a "this way up" mark for the local bulders! It is an ORDINANCE MARK and represents a known height and position above sea level to which surveyors can refer when surveying the local topography.