The tower holds two bells, and between them their stories span over five centuries of the church’s life.
The older of the two dated from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. It was cast by Richard Mellour, a bellfounder from Nottingham who also served as Mayor of that city. Mellour was active between around 1480 and 1509, and his bells are known for their distinctive decorative style: fleur-de-lis stamps and characteristic “S”-shaped scrollwork. It was almost certainly cast on site, using a pit dug close to the church, as was common medieval practice.
The second bell was cast after the Civil War by George Oldfield, also from Nottinghamshire. It was given by Thomas Gaunt, the same benefactor who restored the font two years earlier, and bears the inscription “God Save the King, 1665”.
By 1907 both bells were in poor condition. A site visit by the John Taylor & Co. bellfoundry of Loughborough found that the tenor bell had only a partial wheel rim remaining, the treble had no wheel rim at all and was out of use entirely, and the bell frame was deemed unsound. Both bells were sent to Loughborough, recast using the metal from the originals. Their inscriptions and markings were carefully copied onto the new bells so that their historic character would not be lost.
