The tower has a single bell (and possibly a sanctus bell) weighing about 20 cwt, the former tenor of a ring of five. The front four bells were sold in 1870.

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                                                                       Church and Spire

The earliest known reference to St. Andrew's Church is from the mid-11th century, but it is likely to have been Anglo-Saxon in origin. In the 16th and 17th centuries St. Andrew's parish was an area for the well-to-do to reside, with fancy homes overlooking the views of the Malvern Hills to the west. But in the mid-19th century decline began. After the 1860s the houses of former dignity became dingy and dilapidated. The area was almost completely cleared in the late 1940s.

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People of a slightly cynical sense of humour have remarked that the present inhabitants of the 20th century suburb of Warndon are descended from those who were bulldozed out of the slums of St. Andrew's parish. Though we should take such remarks with a pinch of salt, it is interesting that there is a pub in the Warndon area called The Glover's Needle! The reason that St. Andrew's spire has this nickname is because many inhabitants of the parish were involved in the glove making industry in the 19th century.

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The spire was built in 1751 (or 1757 in some records) by Nathaniel Wilkinson. But there was a tall and impressive spire before this which was damaged beyond repair by lightning in 1733 - hence the new Wilkinson spire. The old spire is frequently mentioned in records, such as this one from 1618: 'Paid for repayring and mendinge ye wether cocke, 5s.10d., guilding ye cocke £1.' A fatal accident occured around this time, as sums are charged for: 'buriall of man who undertook paytinge of ye steeple.'

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Wilkinson's tower and spire stands at 245 and a half feet, the tower being 90 ft, and the spire itself 155 and a half feet. It is particularly notable for the proportion of the small base in contrast to the height of the spire, being only 20 ft diametre at the base, and barely 7 inches at the top.

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In 1870 repairs were made to the spire by the aid of a kite! It is worth quoting the article about this from The Builder magazine issue of 4th June 1870:

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'Mr. George Frith, of Coventry, builder, who recently repaired a spire at Hereford by simple and inexpensive means, has been employed in this case also, as in others besides Hereford. Standing on Payne's Meadow, he flew a kite carrying a holding string, which he manoeuvered as to be securely passed over the top stone of the spire and round the rod which supports the weather-cock. To this thin kite line was then attached one somewhat thicker which was drawn over, which in its turn gave way to a rope...under an inch thick. To this rope was fixed a block...which formed the means by which the adventurous climber reached the top. From this was suspended, by means of cords passed through the four corners, a small piece of board, just large enough to form a seat, and to the rope on the other side of the block were fastened large weights, 12 stone in all. The space between the seat and the weights was the height of the spire...the weights being a form of counter-poise. The ascent did not occupy more than a minute, being accomplished with the greatest ease. In this ascent, Frith kept himself from the wall with his feet by a walk-like motion. Arrived at the top, he left his seat and stood on the top stone, upon which the crowds below burst into a loud cheer. 'Steeple Jack' answered the cheer from aloft, after which he took off the weather cock, examined it and replaced it. He repaired a defect in the lightning conductor'.

 

Repair of steeples by kite seems to have been quite common. In 1910 a steeple-jack named Cross remarked that in the 'old kite-flying days,' the first ascent after the rope was secured was always at the mercy of any crumbling masonry at the top.

 

There are plenty of entertaining anecdotes about the spire. In 1801, while repairs were taking place, a barber named Bayliss shaved several of his customers on top of the scaffolding. At about the same time a china painter named Cotterill took a small cup to the top and painted it up there. In 1844, upon the completion of some repairs when 16 feet of the top of the spire had to be rebuilt, it was honoured by a visit of Freemasons, and the capital of the spire was fixed in its position by Mr Bennett - the Worshipful Master - assisted by architect, sculptor and master of ceremonies - one Joseph Stephens - who lived in the shadow of the spire at the bottom of Copenhagen Street. The fact that the present top of the spire is a copy - with the original still on view below in the St. Andrew's Gardens - suggests that the substitution was made during this event in 1844.

 

On another occasion when repairs were being made to the weather cock, James Powell - Worcester wine merchant - cracked a bottle of old port on top of the spire, assisted by James Knight, editor of the Worcester Chronicle.

 

                                                                            The Bells

There used to be a ring of five bells, tenor about 20cwt, but the front four were sold to Taylor's Bellfoundry in 1870, to help fund the repairs made to the church in that same year, as illustrated above. Some say that the dates and founders of these very old bells are unknowns, but the National Bell Register records the tenor bell (which still hangs in the tower) as being cast in the Gloucester Foundry c. 1350. Whether there is sufficient evidence for this, I don't know. The weights of the front four bells were:

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Treble:  7 - 1 - 17

2nd:       8 - 2 - 19

3rd:       11 - 3 - 5

4th:       14 - 3 - 17

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This heavy ring of five must have sounded impressive, but would probably have been quite challenging to ring, particularly with the enormous spire above. As this is meant to be a Change Ringing website, the following questions come to mind: how much were these bells rung, what methods were rung there, what was the longest piece of ringing there, was there ever any regular ringing there, or a local band? These are all very interesting, but very difficult to answer. In contrast to the lost ring at St. Helen's, it seems unlikely that the tower was ever a busy powerhouse of Change Ringing, partly due to the challenging combination of tower and bells, and partly due to the lack of anecdotal references to ringing there. The fact that the bells were removed in 1870 makes it difficult to trace ringing performances there, because this predates the Bell News and Ringing World journals (though, ironically, the founder and sole editor of Bell News, Harvey Reeves, was himself a Wigornian, and learnt to ring at All Saints Church, virtually in the shadow of St. Andrew's spire - the fact that his first attempt at Rounds was on 25th January 1858 makes it not unreasonable to speculate that he could have rung at St. Andrew's before the bells were removed in 1870.) This limits sources to local newspapers and, possibly, Church Bells - the misleadingly named general church magazine which had a page dealing with bells and ringing.

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As a mere armchair historian I will have to leave this research to the real experts. However, there is a particularly enlightening newspaper article in the Berrow's Worcester Journal (one of the world's longest running newspapers) of May 14th 1870, at the time of the bells' removal:

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REMOVAL OF ST. ANDREW'S BELLS

A meeting of parishioners was held in St. Andrew's vestry on Thursday 10th February last, for the purpose of considering the desirability of disposing of the four smaller bells of the church, and it was decided to sell them and apply the proceeds to the restoration fund. The bells have for years only been rung on Christmas and New Year's Eve, on account of their imperfect condition. The bishop gave his sanction for disposal of the four bells, and they have recently been purchased by Mr Taylor, of Loughborough, and were removed from the church tower last week. The call-bell and the tenor bell are retained.

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The late David G Franklin came across this while searching for material about St. Helen's bells, and it was reprinted in The Black Pear (the Worcestershire & Districts Association newsletter) issue of Spring 2007. Being tower captain of All Saints - adjacent to St. Andrew's spire - at the time, it was particularly appropriate that David should have found this, though it is likely that other ringers had come across it previously. The article is enlightening because it confirms that the bells definitely WERE rung - albeit very infrequently - up to 1869, and that some "years" previous to that, they had been rung more frequently. Hopefully more information will come to light one day. When one looks at the spire today, particularly from Worcester Bridge, it is intriguing to imagine what it must have been like to have listened to the ringing from outside. The sound of that heavy five booming out of the massive tower and spire must have been a stupendous - almost scary - experience. Funnily enough, there is nothing to suggest that the bells were even in a Major Key, as many old rings of five are not. I would love to go back in a time machine and listen to the ringing from outside.

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                                                               Demolition of the church

It is no coincidence that St. Andrew's church was pulled down in 1949, only two years before St. Helen's bells were sold for scrap, as the post war austerity and general shortage of money put Worcester's churches and other historic buildings under great pressure (though this pressure had also been evident for the city churches before the war, due to the diminishing congregations.) As the parish of St. Andrew's was such a poor area, with few parishioners, the Bishop of Worcester offered the declining church building and its grounds to Worcester City in 1936. The offer was taken up a decade later, after the war. The original plan was to demolish the entire building, widen Deansway, and create a garden of remembrance. Luckily, the council 'desired to retain the steeple and tower of St. Andrew's because of its great architectural beauty.' Thus, the church was pulled down, and the tower and spire repaired.

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There are plenty of quite widely published pre-1949 photographs in existence of the church building attached to the tower before demolition. It is interesting that the main body of the nave and aisles was very short in proportion to the tower and spire.

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                                                                               Today

The old tenor bell can still be heard, as a clock was installed to chime the hours in 2003, as a jubilee project. I'm not sure if this is true, but it was said that David Franklin (mentioned above) would look after the clock. At about the same time, an ancient tradition was reinstated here. The tenor bell was originally given to the church as the 'Council Bell,' and would be rung before meetings of the council. This tradition is continued today, as the bell is chimed electronically from 6.45pm - 6.50 before each full meeting of the council. I well remember when this custom was reinstated, as my Father and I both listened from an upstairs window in Malvern Road one winter night while the council bell was chiming. Someone has posted a Youtube video of the bell striking the hours:

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Being such an old bell it is not particularly tuneful or sonorous. But it is still fitting that this noble Worcestershire landmark has a voice to accompany its dominant visual presence.

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                                                                                 Sources

• Bradford, Anne, Worcestershire Ghosts and Hauntings (Redditch: Hunt End Books), 2001

• Bridges, Tim, Churches of Worcestershire (Logaston Press), 2005

• Eisel, John, Giants of the Exercise II (CCCBR Publications), 2006

• Gwilliam, H. W., Old Worcester: People and Places, Volume One, 1977

• Memories of Worcester: Page after Page of Pure Nostalgia (True North Books Limited), 2000

• The Big Event, 2004 (book produced about Worcester's culture, to help raise funds for a Cathedral appeal)

• The Black Pear, Issue 11, Spring 2007 (WDCRA newsletter, containing the old newspaper article used above)

• National Bell Register

• David Beacham

• Nigel Davis

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