Cornwall Historic Churches Trust

With the generous support of CHCT, the Truro Diocesan Guild of Ringers, the Garfield Weston Foundation, Benefact Trust, the Sharpe Trust, Ladock PCC and many individual donors from the Ladock and wider community (including Canada), it was possible to commence the project to recast and restore Ladock’s bells during June. With help of a team of volunteer ringers, the contractor, Taylor’s of Loughborough brought them down from the tower, putting them on display in the Church, the first time that they had been on general view since 1925 and in some cases, 1883. After a guest appearance of the 3^rd at the village fete, the bells were removed from the church for the final time; the seven smallest bells were loaded onto a trailer and toured the Upper Fal Parishes area, escorted by a convoy of eighteen vintage tractors, before being transported to Loughborough: a fitting destination as all eight were originally cast by John Taylor. It is hoped that the bells will be back in the tower in time to ring for Christmas Day.

In the astoundingly short period of 18 months, due to the dedication and support of so many people, the eight bells in St Denys Church have been restored and rehung.
The dismantling of the bells happened across two weeks in January 2024 – the worker from Taylors was ably supported by a team of local volunteers. At the end of this process all the fittings and the oldest bell were returned to the foundry for restoration and replacement. Three bells remained in the tower and four were securely stored for us by Cornish Lithium.

Liz Bradbury writes “Fundraising and awareness raising activities continued at pace. The hardworking committee constantly kept working – members came from across the village community, not just the church. This has certainly been a whole community project.
Nine people have been training or refreshing their training as bell ringers – this has been conducted at this stage by Phil Tremaine and the training bell at St Columb Major – when this stage of training is complete then weekly bell ringing practice will resume in St Dennis.
In June 2024, over a period of 4 weeks, the bells were rehung, tested and then handed over to Steve, as Tower Captain. The internal of the ringing chamber were made more hospitable with walls cleaned, cleaned curtains, new curtain pole and new carpet.
A service of celebration and rededication of the bells was held at the church on Sunday 14^th July led by Bishop Hugh Nelson and attended by representatives from across the village and Cornish bell ringing community. The focus of this service was the way the local community has come together to support the project. Bishop Hugh spoke passionately about this aspect but also about how bells impact on our lives – to call to prayer, to celebrate family and community events and to warn and protect.
The local bell ringing community have been generous in their support of St Dennis and will be supporting us as we go forward.
Pictures here courtesy of Derek Williams who photographed the whole process. These photos will be kept for the St Denys archives.

St Mary’s Aisle is the last remaining remnant of the Parish Church of St Mary, Truro, much of which was demolished to make way for the new cathedral in 1880. There has been prayer and worship on this site since at least 1259, the date it was consecrated by Bishop Bronescombe of Exeter. The first Rector was installed in 1265, John de Belsal. click here to find out more