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Camden New Journal - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 1 November 2007

Father Andrew Meldrum and John Thorp

Summoned by bells again as church’s chimes
are restored

CHURCH bells are to ring out across Parliament Hill Fields again after a year-long absence as a restoration project at St Anne’s in Highgate West Hill comes to an end.
The £52,000 scheme has seen the Victorian church’s eight bells removed from its sandstone spire and repaired at the foundry that originally cast them.
The bells have been immortalised by poet laureate Sir John Betjeman, who wrote of them in his Highgate poem, Summoned By Bells.
The restoration project meant the bells, installed in 1854, did not ring out before services for the first time in the church’s history. St Anne’s bell ringer John Thorp said the work was desperately needed as the bells were cracked.
“They had been in place with nothing done to them since they were originally installed. We discovered they were in a bad way when we removed them and had a closer look,” he said.
The bells were sent to the Whitechapel Foundry, where they were originally cast. They were welded and then taken to a specialist workshop in Bath for tuning – adding a further £10,000 to the £40,000 bill.
The cost of the repairs has been covered by donations, including gifts of £17,5000 from the Middlesex Association of Church Bell Ringers and £12,5000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The bells arrived back at St Anne’s on Wednesday when workmen hoisted them into position. The church’s bell ringers hope to use them to summon worshippers to services as early as next week.
St Anne’s vicar Father Andrew Meldrum said: “We are delighted to have them back.”
In recognition of Mr Thorp’s work, the smallest of the bells has been called John.

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