Round the Bellcote on Filkins Church
During 2017 to 2019, the bellcote on St Peter's Church Filkins was restored. We will be posting some great film of the bellcote and bell, but in the meanwhile here, first, is a panorama of Filkins taken from the scaffolding while the work was in progress, and second (below), film of the new stonework after the restoration process was almost concluded.
When the weathered and damaged stonework on the very top of the bellcote was taken down it was so eroded, it was difficult to see clearly the lines of George Edmund Street's wonderful design from the 1850s.
So it is not, perhaps, surprising that it took a while to get things right, but the churchwardens and PCC kept at it, and after a fluttering start, things came together.
The properly restored bellcote is a great legacy.
Thank you to both the churchwardens and lay-members of the PCC.
Above: the south and north faces of the eroded stones. Below: the temporary replacement stone, clay maquette & the final stonework
And as a reminder that all is not lost of Filkins' craft traditions, thank you to Simon Sparks for his repair work work on the iron spigot that carries the golden weathervane cockerel (see it at the end of the film above). 'May the hammer smite the anvil for ever!'