Over the past 24 months, significant restoration work has taken place within the tower at St. John’s Church, ensuring it’s ready for the next century of service.
The ringing chamber (the space from which the bells are rung) has changed floors several times over the years and pre-1950 it was on a level just below the clock chamber, about halfway up the tower. At some point in the 1950s, the ringing chamber moved to the ground floor level. In 2023, the ringers suggested moving the chamber back to the pre-1950s level to free up ground floor space for planned improvements planned for the church including a disabled toilet.
After hundreds of years of use, the tower’s narrow spiral stone steps used to access the clock chamber and belfry had become very worn, and rather precarious to climb. Previous generations had elected to install wooden steps over the top of the existing stone ones to approximately half way up the tower to the chamber which is now being used to ring the bells from.
To anyone who climbed the stairs for the fundraising abseil down the tower in August of 2022, it was clear just how worn the old wooden steps had become. Decades of weathering, wear and tear, and woodworm had left them in a state beyond repair. Thanks to major fundraising efforts and the skill of local contractors, the steps up the tower have now been expertly replaced to the halfway point.
As well as the new wooden tower steps, the clock chamber and belfry have been fitted with new wooden floors. The clock chamber is now accessed directly from the ringing chamber by means of a foldaway loft-type ladder. The belfry and roof is still accessed via the spiral stone stairs.
Years of water ingress in through the tower’s stonework and pest infestation in the form of Deathwatch beetle had conspired together to undermine the structure of the belfry’s wooden flooring, the wooden frame housing the bells and also the supporting steels.
The internal walls of the ringing chamber and the clock chamber have been limewashed to help preserve their structure and brighten up the space. Further improvements include repointed and repaired stonework, new lighting (including emergency lighting) and power sockets throughout the tower. The bellringers are building seating, shelves and coat pegs in the ringing chamber and have laid a carpet. With these vital upgrades, the tower is now a much safer and more accommodating space, and ready for the next century of bell ringing.