Calstock Bell Ringers
Bell Restoration Project
The bells return to Calstock
On Wednesday 24th July 2019 the bells returned to St Andrew's church. The process was pretty much the reverse of the removal, although there were a few variations.
Andrew Worth from Cyril Worth & Son brought the bells to Calstock and not long afterwards Chris Facey arrived driving his tele-handler. The bells were unloaded one by one and placed through the lychgate onto the path to the church. Once on the ground they were loaded onto the pallet truck and taken up to the church door.
At this point we discovered that the pallets would not fit through the door. Chris Facey saved the day by producing a chainsaw with which he shortened each pallet in turn. But the tenor presented a different problem: this bell was so big that it only just squeezed through the door when it left the church; it would not be sufficient to shorten the tenor pallet, it needed to be on a much smaller pallet. Fortunately, we had one narrow pallet sitting at the back of the church; we carefully wrapped blankets around the tenor headstock and Chris Facey lifted the bell off one pallet and deposited it on a narrower one.
Once all the bells were back in the church they were beautifully decorated with flowers by Jenny Snuggs and were then left on display for a few days. Dozens of people visited the church each day to look at the bells and marvel at their beauty. John Taylor & Co had done a fantastic job, the bells looked wonderful.
Evensong on Sunday 28th July was conducted by Roger Desborough; at the start of the service the bells were blessed by Rev Chris Painter.
