At 8.30am on Monday June 16, Martyn Parratt cut out the two blocks of stone from the tower doorway. The two largest bells will not fit through the doorway otherwise. The two pieces of stone had been cemented back into place in 1932 after the bells had passed through the door.
Neil Deem, a professional bellhanger of Nicholson Engineering, arrived from Dorset at 11am and boarded over the ringing room floor and brought in chain hoists and lifting straps. Our volunteers (Anne Prestwick, Martin Walton, Pete Johnson and Steve Brooks) turned up as the clock marked noon by chiming for the last time until September. After a commonsense safety briefing, they all set to work in the belfry in the fine but rather hot weather. By 4pm they had dismantled the stays, wheels, clappers, pulleys and loosened the bearing block holding down bolts and some cross bracing.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) will be the Church coffee morning so there will be the added entertainment of watching work in the belfry on the cctv monitor as well as the hoisting of the equipment for lowering the bells to the tower floor.