Removing the bells
On Monday 14th July, James Haseldine from Whites of Appleton arrived and along with volunteer labour rigged all the lifting gear needed to get the bells out and down into the church. With a 9:30 start we worked and lowered the first bell, the treble, down into the church by 12:10, we are lucky to be able to have a band with the experience to get this job done so quickly and efficiently.
The final bell descended the tower, the third, by 15:30 and lined up ready to be loaded onto the lorry.
This work would not have been possible without all those that came along to help on the days that we were working so a huge thanks to Sam Austin, Chris Baxter, James Blackburn, Graham Clarke, Jenny Hastings, Micheal Hastings, Karen Lane, Mark Smith, John A Speak, John D Speak, David West and Kaye West.
We finished the first part of the work by celebrating Sam Austin’s 40th Birthday with a buffet lunch and cake, many happy returns to Sam.
More details on the ongoing restoration and a complete record of the work is going to be added to the site in due course.