The Bell Tower and the Clock
The BEll TOwer
The castellated west tower (shown) and nave of the church were built in the Perpendicular Gothic style.
All date from the beginning of the reign of the late medieval Lancastrian King, Henry IV (1399–1413).
The tower is a prominent landmark in the village.
Our bell ringers ring the church bells for regular church services on Sundays, weddings and other family and national events, and the bells can be heard for miles around.
The earliest record of bells at the church is from 1585, when one had just recently been cast.
This must have been recast at a later date, as in the late 19th century the dates of the bells were recorded as 1602 or 1621, 1628, 1629, 1698 and 1723, forming a ring of five.
James Keene of Woodstock cast the 1628 and 1629 bells.
‘The Church Bells of Oxfordshire’ (Frederick Sharpe, 1951) describes our bells :
The recast bells
‘Treble: 1602 / 1621
Second: James Keene made me 1628
Third: James Keene made me 1629
Fourth: Rich.d Hill and Tho: Lay. Ch. Wardens AR1723
Tenor: John Malcher Jonah Smith C.W. 1696
‘Of these the treble was probably by Robert Atton: the second and third were by James Keene, and the fourth by Abraham Rudhall II.
Mr White read the date on the tenor as 1628 but whilst stating that it was difficult to read.
Mr Walters thought it must be intended for 1688 and the work of Richard Keene.
I am inclined to think of Mr White’s reading is likely to be correct, as Richard Keene used a distinctive form of figure 8 comprising two separate circles, which could not have been easily mistaken.
Visited: F.S.*, 2nd August, 1948
Robert Atton was founding at Buckingham, James Keene at Woodstock and Abraham Rudhall II at Gloucester.’
*Frederick Sharpe
The tower is kept locked. The ringing chamber may be visited by arrangement with the churchwardens or the secretary of the bell ringers. The base of the tower is still occasionally used as an entrance porch, leading from the west door to the nave of the church.
The Clock
The original clock, possibly of 15th or 16th century origin, constructed with a single hand, was largely destroyed in the 1918 fire.
The fire reduced the historic clock to "a twisted mass of old iron".
The remains of the original clock were presented to the University of Oxford’s Museum of the History of Science in the Old Ashmolean building, Broad Street where they were restored and installed as an exhibit.
In 1938 a Keeper at the museum recognised its similarity with the clock at Dover Castle in Kent and concluded that the two were by the same clockmaker.
The clock chamber is positioned between the ringing chamber and the bell chamber. Access to both chambers and to the roof of the tower is by ladder.
Following the Second World War a committee was formed to choose and install a new clock.
The architect, Professor Sir Albert Richardson, founder of the Richardson & Gill firm and President of the RIBA and an architectural historian, proposed two dials on the North and West faces of the tower. Prof Richardson designed the clock faces to be diamond shaped, to match the lozenge shapes in the stonework round the West door of the tower.
The Professor was a leading architect of the first half of the 20th Century. He was the architect of the listed post-war headquarters and printing presses of the Financial Times, built on a bomb site near St Paul’s Cathedral at Bracken House, Cannon St in the City of London.
The new Combe Church clock (shown) was built by John Smith and Sons of Derby, Clockmakers since 1856. It was installed in 1948, in time for the opening ceremony for the village Recreation Ground performed by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, in July 1949.
The clock was designed to be wound by hand. An electric winding mechanism was subsequently added.
As a result of a generous donation, the church was able in 2013 to commission Smiths of Derby to carry out a full restoration of the clock. This involved the two clock faces being removed from the tower and taken to Derby for repair and repainting.
The gilded Roman numerals marking the hours of 12.00, 3.00, 6.00 and 9.00 are paired with the numerals 1, 9, 4 and 8, recording the date of the inauguration of the new clock.
The 1918 Bell Tower Fire
These two photographs show the aftermath of the disastrous fire of 1918. The bells can be seen lying at the foot of the bell tower with the damaged remains of the single handed clock.
Five in number, the bells were considered to be superior in tone and weight to any in the neighbourhood. The bells were irreparably damaged in the fire and were melted down and recast in 1925, as a ring of six, at the Taylor Foundry in Loughborough, Leicestershire.
The sanctus bell survived the fire and was rehung at the same time. It may have originally hung in the unusual stone bellcote above the east end of the nave,.
The single handed clock was discarded but later was rescued and found to contain a 17th century escapement, apparently replacing an earlier mechanism. After restoration the clock was given to the History of Science Museum in Oxford.
We have at least four contemporary accounts of the fire:
“The year was 1918 and I must have been 7 or 8 at the time.
Mr. and Mrs. Tilbrook were in charge of the school while Mr. Richards, the Schoolmaster was in the army. They and their family were lodging with us at ‘The Cock Inn’.
In the early hours of the morning I was woken up by a pebble hitting the window of the room I shared with their daughter. It was Mr. Stroud from across the road trying to let the Tilbrooks know that the Church was on fire.
I dressed quickly and followed them across the Green. Miss Putt from the Post Office had been woken up by the glare from the burning ivy on the church and had raised the alarm. By the time we reached the church there was already a chain of people passing buckets hand over hand from the old pump to the church.
I followed the Tilbrooks to the church and can remember seeing the Vicar, Mr. Pearce, kneeling at the altar. The large candles were melting in the heat and were bent like an arch. Back outside Alan Oliver had cycled off through the park to fetch the Fire Engine. This was kept at my cousin Bill Knibbs’, in Old Woodstock, and was horse drawn.
When it finally arrived it pulled into Collier’s field and pumped water from the pond up to the church. My final memory is of standing next to my brother, Tom, and helping him to pump.
Sadly all the bells were destroyed except the ‘ring-tang’ which lodged on a window-sill.“
- M. Gurney
The vicar at the time of the fire was the Rev. S.Spencer Pearce and his son, Rev. Lawrence S.C.Pearce recalls the occasion:
“The fire was caused apparently by a spark from a bonfire in the garden of the Rectory house igniting the birds’ nests in the rafters of the tower.
The fire broke out in the small hours of the morning and it was two hours or more before the Woodstock fire brigade appeared on the scene. However the greater part of the village turned out to help and my father spent the interval before the arrival of the fire brigade at the top of a ladder pouring water on the west end of the nave roof to prevent it from being melted by flames and burning beams.
The water was conveyed to him in buckets by a string of helpers stretching from the base of the tower to the pump in the Vicarage scullery. In this way the roof was saved, but the tower was burnt out and all the bells cracked, with the exception of the tenor which fell last of all upon a thick heap of ashes.
Also all the contents of the oak chest at the back of the nave, consisting of the older register books and church wardens’ account books were destroyed. Fortunately the oldest register book of all was in the study at the Vicarage at the time and so was saved.
The fire was a great blow to my father and the disaster was increased owing to the fact that the bells were uninsured. But he immediately set about trying to collect funds for their recasting and rehanging. Money however came in slowly and it was not till some years after he had left the parish that the bells were rehung.”
- Rev. Lawrence S.C.Pearce
‘The Rectory was taken over in 1917 by William Gavin, who played cricket for Combe and later became Sir William Gavin, and that is where the church fire was on March 3rd or 4th, 1918. On Sunday , March 23rd, 1986, I met the man I thought drove the fire pump from Woodstock to Combe: it was Bill Knibbs, who is now 85 years old. He was 18 at the time and remembers it well because his father would not let him drive to Combe. His father drove the fire pump. Ernest Banbury was Chief Fire Officer and there were three other firemen.
When they got word at Woodstock it took over an hour to get on the move. The horses had to be caught, harnessed up, shut on to the pump, and the firemen had to be got together on bikes, so by the time they got word and had set up at Combe it would have taken two and half hours or more. I remember the horses galloping down Akeman Street and round to Alma Grove pond where they set the pump up.
The fire started at the top of the tower, it was thought in the jackdaws nests which had built up over hundreds of years. Builders had been working in the Rectory, modernising it for Mr. Gavin, taking out old timber and burning it in the yard between the house and the church. Most people said the sparks from these big fires started the church fire.
The fire pump was hand-operated by eight people, four each side. I remember three of them: Allan Oliver, Bert and Reg Huckins. When the fire hose got going, the water would only reach about halfway up the tower so they had to go inside the church.
The Rev. Spencer Pearce went up the tower and brought the ‘Ting Tang’ down before the big bells came crashing down. They came down before the firemen got there. I know just where I was standing when the bells came down. They were taken away and restored and later re-installed in the tower. However, all the old records were burnt, which we know is a great pity.’
The following account of the fire was published in The Oxford Times:
The Fire at Combe Church
Destruction of the Parish registers
Early on Friday week a fire broke out in the tower of the parish church, dedicated to St. Lawrence the Martyr. Miss Putt of the Post Office was aroused by the noise of crackling woodwork, and looking out of her window she saw flames coming out of the upper storey windows of the tower. She quickly communicated the news to the Vicarage, Mr. Arthur Wild (the parish clerk), and others, and a number of helpers were soon at work with buckets of water.
It was soon seen that nothing could be done to save the bells, as they could not be reached, but every effort was made to confine the conflagration to the tower. For a time the recently restored nave roof was in danger, and it caught fire in two of three places, but ladders being fetched water was taken up and the danger averted.
As the beams of the belfry frame were burned, the bells fell into the basement with a loud thud. Two were completely broken, three, including the tenor, are entire, but cracked and useless until re-cast. About 6 a.m. the Woodstock Fire Brigade, under Captain Banbury, were on the spot with their engine and hose, and the fire was extinguished.
Among other things lost are the parish chest with its contents including the register of births, marriages, and burials, commencing with the year 1646; the one day clock dating from the middle of the seventeenth century, and the cassocks and surplices belonging to the choir, the basement of the tower being used as a vestry.
The structure is fully insured, but none of the bells or other contents are covered. Miss Taunton (Freeland) lent surplices and cassocks for use on Easter Sunday and until those lost can be replaced. The Rev. Herbert Sawyer, of Glympton Rectory, has sent the Vicar a cheque to help to replace the things damaged, and a fund has been opened to collect money for the recasting of the bells and providing what is absolutely necessary.
Any who would like to Combe make good the damage are invited to send contributions to the Rev. S. Spencer Pearce at Combe Vicarage.
Acknowledgements: Rob Smith; Combe-Cecil S. Emden; Rev Lawrence S.C. Pearce; Victoria History of the Counties of England.
(Originally published in the Combe Courier, reproduced with thanks to Combe Courier Archives)