The Magazine
The Magazine is published monthly and covers St Tudy, Michaelstow and St Mabyn.
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ST TUDY CHURCH TOWER
You may know that we have had the builders in St Tudy church tower for the last few weeks.
Although little is visible from the outside, inside is a hive of activity. We have needed to address some issues to make the tower safe and to protect against our traditional winter weather. The current lock-down has provided the ideal opportunity to get this work done without too much disruption.
We had an old boiler flue that was in danger of collapsing onto our bells. This has now been safely removed, the tower roof made good and the turret pointing repaired.
The floor of the intermediate chamber that gives access to the belfry has been of concern for some time. This has turned into a major exercise with the discovery of a lot of rotten wood. Fortunately, we have an excellent builder who has given us a plan to repair substantial timbers and keep them in the tower for generations to come.
The final part of this safety work is the guide rack that channels the bell ropes safely to their respective bells. The metal brackets that hold the wooden guide in place were of concern. However, on close inspection the brackets are fine so they will be refurbished and reset in the ringing chamber to give many more years of service.
This work has been essential to keep the tower and hence the church open. Yes, it is very costly, but may I extend my grateful thanks to the villagers and friends who have contributed so generously to this work. Our next challenge will be to work on the outside of the tower, and I will be launching an appeal to raise the significant funds for this later this year. Please do help if you can.
The real beauty of completing the safety work is that we will be fit to ring the fabulous bells of St Tudy to call people to services, to celebrate weddings and to mourn the passing of our friends.
We do need more bell ringers though, you don’t need to be a church goer, about half our ringers are not, neither do you need to be very strong; you just need to delight in the ancient art that sounds across our countryside.
I can’t train new ringers at the moment due to the pandemic but if you would like to register your interest, I can give you some online resources so that you can understand what is involved and when we are allowed, I will be honoured to teach you this art.
STOP PRESS!!! The Church tower was struck by that massive lightning bolt early on Friday morning of 12th March.
There was extensive damage to the tower drainpipe and to the electrical system, but our comprehensive lightning conductor protected the fabric of the tower.
Our insurers are visiting shortly, and we hope to be repairing the damage soon, which should not slow down the other tower work. As we often say, “It could have been worse.”
JOHN MARDON John@jmardon.co.uk
TREASURER, PROJECT MANAGER, BELL RINGER. 01208 851541
(This, and much more news, is in the current magazine)
