Beckley : Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary

About this church

The Church of England parish church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was originally Norman, but was rebuilt in the 14th and 15th centuries. The interior has a number of 14th- and 15th-century wall paintings including a Virgin and Child, an Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the weighing of souls, the torments of the damned and 15th-century paintings of Saint Peter, Saint Paul and a Doom.

By 1552 the tower had four large bells and the church had also a Sanctus bell. The Sanctus bell has been lost but the tower bells have been renewed and increased to the present ring of five. Richard Keene of Woodstock cast the treble bell in 1650 and the third bell in 1654. Richard III Chandler of Drayton Parslow, Buckinghamshire cast the fourth bell in 1705 and Henry III Bagley of Chacombe, Northamptonshire cast the second bell in 1707, possibly at his foundry at Witney. Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the present tenor bell in 1881. For technical reasons the bells are currently unringable.

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