OS: SO720516
Suckley, St John the Baptist
The Suckley Parish Church of St John the Baptist is situated, appropriately enough, in Church Lane. The village does not have a centre per se but here, if anywhere, would most likely be considered the centre. There is a sizable, attractive churchyard with views in all directions.
The ringing room is reached by climbing the 46 steps of a spiral staircase from inside the tower. The room is a nice spacious area with a red carpet and two large clock mechanisms. There are windows on three sides of the tower. The bottom of the bell frame forms the room of the ringing room and consequently the bells are quite loud.
2007-07-04 [ expand ]
I visited as a ringer for the first time on Wednesday 4th July 2007 though I have been in the Church on many occasions. I have wanted to ring here since I first started ringing, my Grandfather and other members of my family rang here when I was a child. There were eight folks including me at the practice. I had met one of them before when I rang at Hallow. Practice started at 8:00pm and went on till 9:30pm.
In this tower they call to the back, I have come across this often enough that it doesn't throw me any longer. I started by ringing up bell #3, and during the evening rang on all the bells except for bell #2. We rang call changes and Plain Hunt Doubles and I rang bell #3 for a couple of plain courses of Plain Bob Doubles. Unfortunately I had to leave at 9:00pm and as I left they were ringing Reverse Canterbury.
2011-04-14 [ expand ]
I visited for the second time on Thursday 14th April 2011 as the third tower
[1st,
2nd,
4th
]
of the 258th Mid-week Outing
of the
Four Shires Guild.
As the organiser of this trip I didn't have much time to ring and only managed to ring up bell #3 but since I've rung here before it didn't matter.
Major work on the tower has been completed since my last visit as witnessed by the safety harnesses hung up and now required by Health and Safety rules.
Clock Mechanism
The Bells
The tower has a ring of 6 bells with a tenor weighing 11-3-20 in F♯. Bells #2, #3, #4 and #5 were cast by Abraham Rudhall in 1710. The tenor was also cast by Abraham Rudhall II in 1725 and the treble was cast in 1755.
Dove's Guide includes details of the bells at St John the Baptist with more information provided by the Worcestershire & Districts Change Ringing Association.
| Bell | Inscription | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Dove's Guide to the bells at St John the Baptist |
|||
| 2 | ||||
| 3 | GOD SAVE THE QVEEN & CHVRCH AR 1710 | |||
| 4 | ||||
| 5 | ||||
| Tenor | I TO THE CHVRCH THE LIVING CALL & TO THE GRAVE DO SVMMON ALL - 1725 |
|||
Historical information is also available here.
