Merston, St Giles

Merston has a single bell, hung in a west facing bellcote.
The earliest features are 13thC in design, but the church in its original form may date to the 12thC. In the mid 19th century, the former wooden belfry was replaced by the present stone A Frame. A loft hatch inside the church shows where access to the belfry was.

The Bell

Bell	Weight	Diameter	Nominal	Note	Founder	Cast	Canon	Hanging
1		16.81"	2271 Hz	Db	Mears & Stainbank	1876	Peg	Swing

Recordings of the Bells

Inscriptions

Photographs

1 Bell, in Db
Though Merston has had a tower for centuries, the earliest surviving reference to bells comes from the Chichester Diocesan survey of 1724, where it states "There is one bell", probably older than 1724.
The first bell we can assign a date and founder to is the single bell cast by Thomas I Mears & Son of Whitechapel in 1809. It undoubtedly had a conventional canon, the inscription made using metal stamps.
It was only small, and apparently measured 17" in diameter.
In the mid 19th century, this bell was removed from the old belfry, and hung in the new open bellcote.

The timeline following Tyssen's survey is quite bizarre, and could suggest the present bell is secondhand.
In August 1958, Elphick shows the bell he saw was the 1809 bell mentioned previously.
Since then, it was either sold or scrapped, for the present bell is by Mears & Stainbank dated 1876?
The clapper has rusted solid, and therefore doesn't ring by pulling the rope. The recording was obtained by striking the bell with a small hammer.
It is chimed by a lever and bolted to a metal headstock.
It has an inscription around the inscription band, made by pressing letter stamps into the cope.
A 35-rung ladder required.

Visited:
29/10/2023
26/06/2024 with Bill Hibbert

Recording of the bell:

How the bell is tuned in relation to the nominal.

-99 ~ -90 -89 ~ -80 -79 ~ -70 -69 ~ -60 -59 ~ -50 -49 ~ -40 -39 ~ -30 -29 ~ -20 -19 ~ -10 -9 ~ -0
0 ~ 9 10 ~ 19 20 ~ 29 30 ~ 39 40 ~ 49 50 ~ 59 60 ~ 69 70 ~ 79 80 ~ 89 90 ~ 99+