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Bristol Rural Branch
Mangotsfield (St James)

St James, Mangotsfield - click for a larger version

Name or Dedication: St James

Location: Mangotsfield, Gloucestershire

Grid Reference: ST664761

Recast from the previous ring of eight (John Warner & Sons, 1920; tenor 10-0-06 in A, diameter 35¾ inches) and rehung with new fittings in Warners' 1920 steel frame which had been thoroughly cleaned and repainted.

The bells were cast in the presence of the ringers and friends on Friday, 26th June 1992, using for the first time Taylors' new two-ton Morgan Tilter Furnace. They arrived at the church on Saturday, 21st November 1992, and the first ringing took place a fortnight later on Saturday, 5th December 1992.

In the Ringing Room is a weight-driven birdcage clock that was given with a ring of six bells to the church in 1687 by Jonathan Tucker, Churchwarden, of Moorend. It struck the hours on the fourth bell and had an impressive dial on the south wall of the tower. In 1897 the clock was renovated as a memorial to Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, and the dial was replaced with the present one.

When the bells were recast into eight in 1920 the clock's hour hammer was disconnected, but it recommenced striking the hours on the tenor when the clock was given a complete overhaul in 1954. Originally hand-wound weekly with the weights dropping to the ground floor, it was converted to epicyclic autowinding by Smith of Derby in 1988. The movement was overhauled again in 1999 when it was also raised to its present position above the south window of the Ringing Room, which it had previously blocked.

Bells hung for full-circle ringing

The bells of St James, Mangotsfield
BellWeightDiameterNoteFounder Date
12-2-20 21½ inB John Taylor & Co. 1992
22-3-21 22 inA# John Taylor Bellfounders Ltd 1992
32-3-25 23 inG# John Taylor Bellfounders Ltd 1992
43-0-20 24 inF# John Taylor Bellfounders Ltd 1992
53-1-06 25½ inE John Taylor Bellfounders Ltd 1992
63-3-22 26½ inD# John Taylor Bellfounders Ltd 1992
75-0-22 29½ inC# John Taylor Bellfounders Ltd 1992
87-1-16 33 inB John Taylor Bellfounders Ltd 1992

Source: Bell data and some information from Revd David L. Cawley. Further information from "Our Parish: Mangotsfield, including Downend" (Revd Arthur Emlyn Jones, 1899).


Where the exact weight of a bell is known, it is given in the traditional way using the British imperial units of Hundredweight, Quarters and Pounds (cwt-qtr-lb) in which there are 28 pounds in a quarter, four quarters in a hundredweight, and 20 hundredweight in a ton (one hundredweight is equal to approximately 50.8 kilograms). However, if only an approximate or calculated weight is known, it is given to the nearest quarter of a hundredweight.

A bell's diameter is measured across its mouth (open end) at the widest point and is given in inches (to the nearest quarter of an inch), one inch being equal to approximately 2.54 centimetres.