The church has an elegant detached tower complete with flying buttresses and contains six ringing bells plus a seventh bell cast in 1572 and “hung dead”, ie it cannot be swung but can be chimed. The tenor to the six ringable bells weighing just short of 13 cwts, was cast by Lester and Pack in 1766 and sounds F sharp. However what was in the tower prior this time? North in his 1882 book on the bells of Lincoln and County mentions “four bells dating to 1652” Luckily I was able to find a reference to these during a visit to “The Gentleman’s Society” at Spalding. This tells us there were in 1652 four bells, the largest having a diameter of 48 inches and cast by Thomas Norris of Stamford. Founders of the other three were not shown but the treble, cast in 1598 carried the inscription “Jesus be our Spede”. The second bell was apparently cracked. Interestingly the diameter of the tenor would indicate a weight in a modern bell of about a ton, though I suspect this bell had a weight of 14 or 15 cwts due to thin walled casting sometimes used at this time. None of these bells remain today.
The first to go was the cracked No 2 which during 1758 was “swopped”for a bell taken from Caston, Norfolk, the contractor being Joseph Mallows whose short lived foundry ( about 1756 to 1760) was at East Dereham, Norfolk. Mallows also cast a new treble bell, increasing the number of bells to five, the “swopped bell”, cast by Brend in 1572 becoming No 3. One can see that by this time two of the original four bells had gone so that in 1758 the situation was as follows;
Treble Joseph Mallows 1758
2-Jesus be our Spede
3-John Brend 1598
4 Founder Unknown- recast by Lester and Pack in 1766
5 Thomas Norris 1652
Four years later in 1766 the next bell to go to the melting pot was No 4 above, recast by Lester and Pack then after a further 40 years in 1806 we have the next episode in the story, more extensive on this occasion. The Norris tenor was broken up, its metal used to cast two smaller bells, the Lester and Pack bell, the earlier No 4 becoming tenor. Jesus be our Spede was also recast at this time. The contractor was Thomas Mears of London. So in 1806 we have;
Treble- Thomas Mears 1806
2 Thomas Mears 1806
3 Joseph Mallows 1758
4 Thomas Mears 1806 , previously “Jesus be our Spede”
5 John Brend 1572
Tenor Lester and Pack 1766
Thus by 1806 all of the earlier 1652 bells had gone and the 1806 arrangement closely resembles what we have today. However in 1904 the Joseph Mallows bell went to the furnace, being recast by Mears and Stainbank who also in 1909 recast No 4, the Thomas Mears bell of 1806. Lastly all were rehung in 2000, the 1572 Brend bell being replaced by a new bell from Taylors of Loughborough. So today we have;
Treble Thomas Mears 1806
No 2 Thomas Mears 1806
No 3 Mears and Stainbank 1904
No 4 Mears and Stainbank 1909
No 5 John Taylor 2000
Tenor Lester and Pack 1766 weight 12-3-22 in F sharp
As mentioned above the Brend bell of 1572 was retained and “hung dead”, bolted to a joist in the upper level of the two tier frame and sounded by a chiming hammer. Weighing about 8 cwts its “pang” of sound leaves a liitle to be desired, but then at 451 years of age who wouldn’t sound a little hoarse? There is an eighth bell at Fleet, not in the tower but hung externally at the north-east end of the chancel between a buttress and chancel wall. This is inscribed with the name James R Jerram, who in partnership with Thomas Blackbourn, ran a bell hanging business based near Sutton Bridge. They rehung the above Lester and Pack tenor in 1874 and installed an Ellacombe Chiming Apparatus, now long gone, though two “peal boards” in the ringing room confirm its one time existence. Jerram’s marked grave , he died in 1932, is some 20 yards or so west of Fleet’s detached tower and is perhaps an appropriate end to this story.