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TOWER AND BELLS

 

    The three stage granite tower is the oldest part of our church dating back to the early fifteenth century. Standing 86 feet (just over 26 metres) high it is one of the tallest towers in Cornwall and is a landmark for sailors. On a clear day eleven other churches can be seen from its top. The small beacon tower on the north-west corner was for lighting signal fires.

    In a time of emergency, such as the Napoleonic Wars, fires were lit on top of hills and on the beacon towers of churches. The story is that a signal could thus be sent from Land's End to London in twenty minutes!

        The tower is home to a very sweet-sounding ring of six bells, regularly rung by a committed band of ringers. Three of the bells were cast by the celebrated Gloucestershire bell-founder Abraham Rudhall in 1727. The tenor bell weighs over three quarters of a tonne and is inscribed:

 

 

"I to the Church the living call

And to the grave do summon all!"

 

   The other two older bells are inscribed "Prosperity to this Parish" and "Prosperity to the Church of England".

   In 1950 three new bells were added, the six hung in a new frame and the tenor bell recast as a memorial to the men of the parish who died in the 1939-1945 war. The new bells were called respectively "Mary" (the gift of the Mother's Union), "St. George" and "St. Pol de Leon" and inscribed "God Bless our Parish". At the service of dedication of the new bells, a hymn was sung with this verse:

 

"And so we pray that God may bless

Each Church's ringing band,

As in the Tower they praise the Lord

In Cornwall's pleasant land"