St
James’s Church possesses a fine three stage square tower located at the
west end of the Church.
There are
substantial diagonal buttresses on all
four corners. On the
stonework on the south side of the
Tower
are some inscriptions badly
eroded but it is still possible to read “ I.T. 1517. ARCHDIAC
DERBY
AND
BUCKING.” Built
into the thickness of the south west corner is a stair turret leading to
the roof of the tower.
Entrance to the church is through the West Door. The
ground floor area of the Tower serves as a porch.
On the first stage of the Tower above the porch is the bellringers
platform, where the ringers can be seen from the nave of the church.
Cut-away diagram of the
tower viewed from the west
(Not to scale)
The next level is the clock chamber, which contains
the clock mechanism and winding gear. The clock is arranged to chime every
quarter of an hour as well as driving the dials on three sides of the
Tower. The clock is still
wound by hand every week. The Bellchamber is the third stage of the tower.
It is about 20 feet high surmounted by a pyramidal roof of oak
construction covered in lead. Inside
the Bellchamber is the mechanism, which splits the drive from the clock
mechanism to the three clock faces. It
is inside this chamber that the eight bells are mounted on oak frames.
There are two frames that are linked together.
This arrangement is very unsatisfactory and needs replacement.
The bells still hang on primitive bearings installed in 1895.
These old bearings make them very challenging to ring.
These two factors are the cause for this appeal.
The tower was strengthened
in 1929 at a cost of £200.
The
Clock
There is a huge pendulum
hanging on the inside of the tower just in front of the bell platform.
It was part of the William Rea of Walton clock of 1794.
Derby
made it.
It strikes the
Cambridge
quarters on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th
& 7th bells. The
clock strikes the tenor bell to chime the hour.
There was a major restoration in 1977 the Queen’s jubilee year.
This was paid for in memory of Major Ray Turner who was
Churchwarden for many years.
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