Thurstaston Jubilee Bell Project
Daily Post Report 17th May 2002
By Stuart Dye Daily Post Staff

Steeple Power May 17 2002.
IT HAS taken more than a century but the hard work of a small band of parishioners will next week realise a 117-year dream.
St Bartholomew's Church in the quiet picturesque village of Thurstaston, Wirral, has stood at one of the peninsula's highest points since 1885 and still holds the elegant charm of a past age. But when it was first built, on designs by the eminent architect J. Loughborough Pearson, only five bells were installed despite space for a sixth.
Church leaders always intended to add the sixth but the final bell never appeared. That was until village parishioners, former church-goers and friends of the parish, teamed up earlier this year to finally put the bell in place. They put their hands in pockets to raise £8,250 for a Jubilee Bell. And the cycle will be completed when the bell is installed and first rung to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee on June 2.
Tower captain Richard Turner said: "The intention was always to have six bells but it was never realised. "Thanks to private contributions from the community we have eventually been able to realise that original plan. "It is a way of marking and celebrating the Jubilee and something that can be enjoyed by the whole village regardless of denomination or whether they are religious.
"It is Thurstaston's way of celebrating the occasion and every time the bell is rung it will be a reminder to our own generation and to future generations of our Queen's Jubilee which is in itself a once in a lifetime occasion." It is the first new bell to be installed at any church in Wirral since 1976.
It was cast by Taylors of Loughborough and is due to be in place by May 24. Donors and bellringers travelled to Loughborough for a party to celebrate the casting and are now looking forward to it taking its rightful place. A team of eight ringers, along with six trainees, will begin the toll on June 2.
And the villagers' efforts have received special recognition from Her Majesty. Deborah Bean, chief correspondence officer at Buckingham Palace, said: "Her Majesty hopes that the special Jubilee peal will prelude many years of pleasure for the inhabitants of Thurstaston by the completion of the ring, the original of which was fitted in the 19th century."
Though St Bartholomew's celebrates its 117th birthday this year, there are records of a church on the site dating back to 1125 and evidence suggests it may have existed in Saxon times. However, it paid the price for enduring many hundreds of years exposed to the elements overlooking fields that descend to the shores of the River Dee.
In 1724 it was described as "a mean building, extremely small, low and dark, and consisting of a semi-circular chancel with a bell turret". It was taken down in 1820 and a second edifice was completed four years later. The second church was demolished in 1871 and executors set aside £4,500 for a new church. It was finally consecrated by William Stubbs, Bishop of Chester in 1886.
The architect went on to design the Truro Cathedral and St Bartholomew's is very much like a small cathedral. Within there remains a list of rectors beginning with Simon de Meoles who was instituted as incumbent in 1303. And many of them had a somewhat chequered life. Philip Ewyas was sued for the detention of an ox. Robert de Crouton was indicted for killing a villager from neighbouring Barnston and John Whitmore was bound in 100 marks to keep the peace towards Sir John Bennet in 1492.
Today the church is just a hundred yards from a busy main road, but it lies in the middle of one of the region's few remaining unspoilt villages. Previous occasions on which St Bartholomew's has celebrated include the national ringing at noon on New Year's Day 2000, when all the towers in the country were invited to peal their bells to commemorate the dawn of the new millennium. And the church also rang half-muffled as a sign of respect for the period of mourning following the Queen Mother's death.

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