St Andrew Undershaft

ST ANDREW UNDERSHAFT

andrew_undershaft.jpg (38882 bytes)

	6 bells
	Tenor: 13-2-6 in G
	Upstairs ringing room.
	Bells now hung dead in their original frame.

DETAILS OF THE BELLS

Bell	Weight	Diameter	Note	Cast	Founder
1	4-1-14	27[]"	E	1669	Anthony Bartlett
2	4-2-6	28ź"	D	1597	Robert Mot
3	5-1-21	30ž"	C	1597	Robert Mot
4	6-3-0	33[]"	B	1600	Robert Mot
5	9-2-14	37˝"	A	1650	Bryan Eldridge
6	13-2-6	41ž"	G	1597	Robert Mot
Clock		24"		1816	Thomas Mears II

THONY BARTLET MADE MEE. 1669

Robertus

mot

me fecit x 1597

Robertus

mot

me fecit 1597

Robertus

mot 8 me fecit

1600

BRYANVS ELDRIDGE ME FECIT. 1650


Robertus	mot	me	fecit		PT	x 1597
				marie

T. MEARS OF LONDON FECIT 1816 (Whitechapel border)

Chris Pickford, one of the country's leading experts on bell frames, had this to say about the frame in this tower:

All of a piece, and of c.1630 to c.1650 – so pre-Civil War – and built for six bells. Hung clockwise. Three parallel pits (for bells 4-6 originally swinging N/S) on the north side – gallows-ended, with trusses consisting of sills, braces (14˝") and long heads, with posts on the north side for the gallows ends. One jack brace in the east side of tenor pit. Two mouth-to-mouth pits (for bells 1 and 3 originally swinging E/W) in the middle – i.e. between the return section of the parallel pits on the one side and a long truss to the south of it. No lateral bracing apart from a timber between the heads separating the pits, which are both open-ended. The long middle trusses both have inverted braces. Further pit (for bell 2 originally swinging E/W) in the SW corner of the tower. The southern truss has one post (at the east) and a jack brace (west). Clearance grooves in the heads and braces, and also in the posts supporting the gallows ends. There are some carpenters’ marks.

1532	Church built.
1552	Record of 4 bells and a saunce.
1597	Certainly 3 of the bells were recast by Robert Mot, if not all of them.
1600	4th (of 6) (or maybe 3rd of 5) was recast by Robert Mot.
1650	5th (of 6) (or maybe 4th of 5) was recast by Bryan Eldridge.
1666	Church escaped the Great Fire.
1669	Treble of 6 recast or added by Anthony Bartlett.
1695	Top stage of tower was rebuilt.
1816	Clock bell recast by Thomas Mears. Early engravings suggest it was hung on a wheel. The present fate of this bell is unknown.
1830	The upper part of the tower was again rebuilt.
1868	Church clock supplied by Moore of Clerkenwell.
1883	Further alterations to the top of the tower were made by T. Chatfield Clarke.
1940	The bells were removed to the country for safety from the War.
1954	Once the War was over, it was supposedly found that the tower was no longer safe for the bells to be rung, so they were retuned and rehung dead for chiming only.
1983	A plaque was dedicated in the church in memory of Fabian Stedman.

In 2002, the upstairs ringing chamber and the clock room are in use as offices. The bells are all rehung "dead" on new wooden deadstocks with supporting ironwork (hooks through the canons). They were once clocked by wires to the clappers from a small chiming manual in the ringing room although the manual now lies disused in the bell chamber.

Photographs from the inside of the belfry showing the old wooden frame and the bells hung dead within it.



	A view of the 4th, cast in 1600 by Robert Mot.

The plaque that was given by the Ancient Society of College Youths in memory of Fabian Stedman, who is buried in the church.

An early engraving of the church showing the tower before the top was modified in 1830. A service bell can be seen on a wheel in the cupola at the top of the tower.