A two hour practice on Saturday afternoon April 20th, organised by Joanne French of the Eastern District, as usual most enjoyable, with eight bell ringing, more advanced methods, conversation with old friends. This church, its history attracting my attention is dedicated to St Peter and St Paul and is particularly interesting as its present form is completely different from that prior to 1804, when it had a central tower, north and south transepts and was considerably larger than it is today. Briefly, beginning in 1804 and over a five year period, the tower and transepts were demolished, a new chancel constructed plus a new west end tower containing a recast ring of eight bells. The architect for this work was a William Haywood who apparently used gunpowder to demolish parts of the original central tower. One wonders what the locals thought and said about these works and whether they approved and also who financed what must have been a most expensive operation. One possible clue is their then vicar, Rev. Henry Francis Swan who “was presented to the vicarage of Kirton by the Company of Mercers” in 1785, and also in 1808 to the living at Witteringham by the Earl of Scarborough , plus a few other appointments. He was an absentee vicar living at Lincoln, came from a moneyed family and seemed to have had friends in high places. These contacts may have helped financially.
Christine, Janice and myself visited the church on May 9th and were given an interesting tour of the building by Fay Baillie, Church Warden . A close look at the present structure is indicative of the alterations, though as Pevsner observed in 1989 the place is “baffling” and as he says “must have been much larger” Incidentally a walk in the church yard reveals no above ground remains of the earlier building. As for the bells, North writing in 1882 tells us , “prior to 1807 there was a noble ring of five large bells”. These must have been broken up and the metal used to cast the ring of eight bells referred to above by Thomas Mears of Whitechapel in 1807 of which Nos 4 and 7 were recast in 1912 by Warners. Individually these bells are of rather poor tone, though having said that, the ringing room acoustics are very good as is the ease of ringing, their combined sound pleasant, and a pleasure to ring. With regard to the alterations to the building the question remains, why were these done? Fay provided a possible explanation . Subsidence, the weight of the central tower and perhaps a hint of its instability threatening the integrity of the whole central section of the church. Whether this is correct awaits more research. Meanwhile I note that Rev. Swan the absentee vicar continued at Kirton until his death in February 1841 at the ripe old age of 91 years, remarkable for those days.
John Bennett