SHOTWICK BELLS

 There has been a church at Shotwick since the Domesday Book was compiled and the present building is basically a Norman structure with substantial fourteenth century alterations. The west tower was built about 1500 to replace an earlier bell- cote and by 1549-1550 it contained a ring of three bells.

In 1936 the Rev. F.W.Wansborough, vicar of Shotwick, died, and in his will he left a legacy to the church there. J.W.Clarke, a ringer from nearby Mollington who was later Ringing Master of the Chester Diocesan Guild, persuaded the parish to use this money to augment the ring of three bells to a ring of six, and the work was entrusted to John Taylor. When he inspected the existing bells he found that the tenor was cracked (this had probably happened in 1730 when the churchwardens' accounts record that the great bell fell and the bells were subsequently rehung). In view of its age this bell was not recast and it now stands on the ground floor of the church underneath the tower. It was cast by John Scott of Wigan in 1664 and the inscription reads:

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS DEO CW WD IB 1664
W
IS
The treble and second of the ring of three were found to be in good condition and were rehung with four new bells to make the present ring of six. Details of the bells can be found at Details of Shotwick Bells

Susan E Costello