A contractor has been digging a trench and soakaway to take the rainwater which is now being piped down from the roof.  Although this was not a recognised area for burials, an archeologist was on hand to recover any bone fragments so that they could be re-interred elsewhere in the churchyard.

The Right Reverend Nick McKinnel, Bishop of Plymouth came to St Peter's this afternoon to rededicate the rehung bells.  In a symbolic ceremony, Alan Hughes presented a bell rope to the Bishop, who passed it on to Rev Alison Shaw, Rector of St Peter's, who in turn gave it to Churchwarden and Tower Captain, John Dietz. 

The local bell ringers rang the bells before the service, and there was open ringing for visiting ringers as well as the home team afterwards.  It was estimated that over 100 people attended the service.  Excellent teas with delicious cakes were provided after the service by a hard-working team from the Mothers' Union.  

Clock is now fully installed.  The face as been re-hung on the tower looking splendid after its repainting.  The chimes and strike are also working to let the village know about the passage of time. 

See Gallery for photographs.

Cumbria Clock Co have now reinstalled the clock in the tower and set it to work, complete with its electric auto-winding system.  Unfortunately, unforeseen delays mean that the face and striking mechanism will not be operational until w/c 5 September.

After a busy week's work the frame has been installed, all 8 bells hung and most of the wheels fitted.  Nothing is left on the ground floor of the church - all the "bits" are in the belfry in various stages of completion.  Next week will be setting up and adjustments, but we're almost there!  Thanks to Neil, Peter and Ian from Whitechapel Bell Foundry for their hard work.

The bells came back today! The lorry arrived about 4:30 and the bellhangers from Whitechapel Bell Foundry and our volunteers spent a very wet hour and a half unloading it in the pouring rain. Tonight the bells, frame and fittings are all on the ground floor of the church waiting for installation to start tomorrow.  See Gallery for more pictures

While preparing the ringing chamber for re-decoration, Elliotts removed a small asbestos panel on the east wall, and found a deep recess and a blocked up window.  It is thought that this window was blocked during the church restoration in 1871-2 when the main roof was replaced.  From the outside, evidence of a red sandstone window surround is visible behind the ridge of the roof.

Elliott Construction have now completed the installation of new floorboards in the belfry.  These are resting on the bottom flanges of the foundation girders and can be removed to allow the bells to be hoisted into the new frame when it arrives.  The photograph also shows some of the pulley blocks on the girders; these will guide the bell ropes down to the ringing chamber.

The new bell-frame has now been erected at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry workshop.  Our 6 old bells have been fitted so that the craftsmen can make sure that everything fits together correctly before it is dismantled and moved to Stoke Fleming.  This structure will rest on top of the foundation girders installed this week.  A grant for the new bell-frame has been given by Viridor Credits from the Landfill Communities Fund.

The foundation girders for the new bell-frame arrived this week, and  bellhangers, Neil and Peter from Whitechapel Bell Foundry, have completed installing them on the concrete ring beam, assisted by local volunteers from the bellringing team.  For more photos see Gallery.

Elliott Construction have now completed the construction of the concrete ring beam in the bell chamber.  This will provide support for the foundation girders of the new bell-frame, and also help to strengthen the tower structure.

We heard today that we have been awarded a grant of £18,000 by Viridor Credits from the Landfill Communities Fund for the cost of the new bell-frame.  This means we have reached our target to complete the project

The bells were loaded and driven away on a 20 ton lorry.  They were taken to Whitechapel Bell Foundry where they will be overhauled and tuned and a new frame will be built to house them when they return towards the end of July

Neil from Whitechapel Bell Foundry came to start removing the bells and bellframe, with help from John, Peter and Richard.  At the end of the day the tenor, 5th, treble and 2nd bells were on the ground floor of the church; three of them in the aisle but the tenor was still in the Choir Vestry waiting for the partition to be removed to allow it to be brought out.

Click here for more pictures of the bell removal.

At the end of another week.  Elliott Construction have removed all the old, corroded roof girders and installed 3 new galvanised ones.  Note the beetle damage in the original (13th century?) oak beams.

The bell-hangers will use these to lower the bells down through the tower.

Information board erected at the church gates by volunteers, to explain to passers-by what is going on. 

This week the scaffolders have erected scaffolding right up to the roof, and supported the original oak roof beams in preparation for removing and replacing the corroded steel ones.  See Gallery for pictures.

Meanwhile a candle holder, perhaps" Victorian, was found in the clock chamber.  Was this the one our "Lightning Man" dropped when he fell down his ladder?  Click here for details of this story.

Good progress by Elliott Construction this week.  We now have a new Ringing Chamber floor, complete with trapdoor, and scaffolding up to the Ringing Chamber ceiling.  The top half of the redundant chimney has been removed, as has the clock weight-box.

The builders have now cut trapdoors in the first 2 ceilings, and removed the bottom section of the clock weights chute and the old clock platform.  They found another "time capsule" under the ringing chamber floor.

Two previous bottles were found last year and were taken to Exeter Museum for assistance with opening.  Click here for more information.

A group of Stoke Fleming Bellringers travelled to London to visit Whitechapel Bell Foundry to watch our two new bells being cast. They were generously sponsored by Johnson Matthey (International metallurgists) to commemorate their bi-centenary and in memory of founder Percival Norton Johnson who lived in Stoke Fleming and is buried in our church. These new bells will be added to our current 6 to make a peal of 8.

Some photographs of the visit can  be seen in the Gallery.

Building work started in earnest today, with Elliott Construction.  There is now scaffolding in the choir vestry and the Tower Room.

The "home team have removed the bell ropes, and the seating and some of the panelling from the ringing chamber.  Upstairs in the clock chamber they have also dismantled the rope chutes which guided the ropes from the bells to the ringing chamber.

Dave, Arthur and Luke from Cumbria Clock Co came to remove the tower clock and take it to their premises in Crediton for safe-keeping while the rest of the project is going on.  While it is away it will be fully overhauled and converted to electric auto-winding.  The face will be repainted and re-gilded.  We expect to be ready for it to come back in about September when it will be chiming the hours and quarters once again.  For more pictures of the clock removal see Gallery

The "home team" removed the wooden box housing the tower clock in preparation for the dismantling and removal of the clock on 18-19 January.

We have today received "Permission to Start" from the Heritage Lottery Fund which means that we will shortly receive the first installment of £19,900 of their grant.  We will be able to place orders once Faculty is received from the diocese, which should be very soon.

We have been informed by the Heritage Lottery Fund that our application for a grant of £39,800 has been successful.  All we need now is a Faculty from the Diocese and then we can place orders for the work and agree a timetable with the contractors