LIttle Staughton Church Bells

 
West tower with gargoyle - copyright Brenda Foster

This article was written by Jeannette Atkinson and Brenda Foster

All Saints has a ring of five bells in a belfry that is open to the nave.

• No 1 (Treble): made by Miles Graye in 1654, recast by Taylor or Loughborough in 1901 after it was damaged in the lightning strike of 1900
  Inscribed Congregate mini sanctus meus
• No 2: made in 1628, recast by Mears & Stainbank in 1934
  Inscribed ‘Let men praise the Lord’
• No 3: made by Jos Eayre (St Neots) in 1755 
  Inscribed Leonard Wye and Robert Baxter, Churchwardens
• No 4: made by the widow Johanne Hille (1440 – 1449)
  Inscribed ‘Sit nomen domini benedictum’
• No 5 (Tenor): made by Miles Graye in 1654, recast by Mears & Stainbank in 1934
  Inscribed Miles Graye made me

The No 4 bell is over 550 years old and was made by a Foundress and the bellframe dates from the mid seventeenth century.

Hanging on the wall of the belfry is a poem from 1756:

This is a belfry that is free
For all those that civil be
And if you please to chime or ring
It is a very pleasant thing

There is no musick played or sung
Like unto bells when they are well rung
Then ring your bells well if you can
Silence is best for everyman

But if you ring in spur or hat
Sixpence you pay be sure of that
And if a bell you overthrow
Pray pay a groat before you go