JOHN DIETZ
bellframe and modernisation of the clock. So far £65,000, including promised
grants, of the £110,000 needed has been raised since the appeal began at the end of 2011. Money has come in through
private and personal donations and fundraising events. A tower open day in August attracted 250 people, including 60 who took a tour up the tower.
There were ten group tours up
the tower on the day. John said many more people wanted to go up and they had to arrange further tours after the event. The original six bells at St Peter’s
were placed in the tower in 1777, in a bellframe made of oak beams, which were susceptible to deathwatch beetle and decay. Apparently 200 years is not an uncommon age for church bells, and they are not due for replacement yet. The original bells will just be retuned and rehung in the new frame. John explained: “Old bells can crack
or eventually wear out where the clapper hits over hundreds of years but 200 years is not exceptionally old. “It is the bell frame that is
corroding and needs replacing. Where it meets the masonry of the tower you can see through it in places. If the girders tip out of alignment the bells won’t be able to ring. “Originally a couple of bell hangers
would have put the frame in place, lifting it up through the tower “When the original bell frame was replaced in 1928, timber was not so plentiful and it was easier to make frames from steel and cast iron but steel rusts with age.”
John said they hope to place the new bellframe order in early 2015, as the bell foundry has over a year’s orders on its books. There are only two bell foundries left in the UK – Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London, the one to be employed for St Peter’s bells – and Taylors of Loughborough.
The steelwork for the new St
Peter’s bellframe will be galvanized to make it last longer. John added: “When it comes back to the church it will be like a big
“When it comes back to the church it will be like a big Meccano set, which will be taken into the tower through the main church and assembled on site.”
Meccano set, which will be taken into the tower through the main church and assembled on site.” John has lived all his life in Stoke Fleming and watched the traffic and population build up over the years. When he attended the village
primary school there were just two classes – an infants and juniors – with 40 pupils, two teachers, a dinner lady and a cook.
John attended Kingsbridge
Grammar School, which he left in 1967. he joined the post office as an apprentice telephone engineer, aged 17 and worked from Torquay.
John left in 2008 and, within a
month, took a part-time job as a signalman on the Dartmouth Steam Railway, where he still works two days a week. Bell ringing brought John and
his wife, Janet, together. She was a bellringer at Stoke Gabriel. The couple married in 1986 and have two sons. The eldest, a mechanical engineering graduate, is a bellringer at Stoke Fleming and the youngest is at college in Cornwall. Janet is an organist and Director of
Music at St Mary’s Church in Totnes. John also runs the Stoke Fleming
Handbell Ringers – a team of 10 and a different group to the church bell ringers.
John added: “We have a great
life here. I can’t really visualise living anywhere else. I was brought up here and like it, so there’s no incentive to go anywhere else.” For more information, and to donate to the tower renovation visit www.
stokeflemingtower.org•
This interview and all previously published interviews in this magazine can be found on By The Dart’s website
www.bythedart.co.uk
visit
www.bythedart.co.uk - for everything & anything about Dartmouth
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132