Newnham History

In or about 1470, John Kebyll of London cast three of the bells for the church and possibly a fourth with that bell being recast in 1772 in Whitechapel.

In 2009, after 40 years when the bells had not been rung full circle and indeed hardly rung at all, the bells were restored at the John Taylor foundry at Loughborough and the opportunity was taken to increase the bells to a peal of 6. One old bell was given by the Keltek Trust and another was newly cast at the foundry. This required the installation of an additional bell frame in the small space left by the 1860 rebuilding of the spire.

The 2009 restoration work was a considerable financial challenge and it is interesting to speculate on how the tiny village of Newnham in the 15th century managed to get its new bells and major rebuilding works.

In 1470, the church was in the hands of the poor nuns of Davington priory and that institution itself was to close because of poverty a few decades later. There were just 24 households recorded in the whole parish in the 16th century.
England was in turmoil with the Wars of the Roses and only recently many of the small landowners and peasants from Kent had been involved in the violent uprising known as the Jack Cade Rebellion.

It had to be a very generous patron who paid for this work. Was it perhaps from a local family giving thanks for a safe return from war?

Returning to 2009, the restoration was celebrated by a service conducted by the retired Bishop of Durham, Rev. Michael Turnbull and attended by 150 people; many teams of bell ringers have visited to ring the bells and a local team of ringers now ensure that the bells are once again regularly heard in the village.

In all this the work and advice of the Kent County Association of Change Ringers played a crucial part and prayers were clearly answered when the new vicar, Rev Richard Birch, turned out to be an enthusiastic and experienced bell ringer and arrived in time to lead the restoration.

A commemoration board in the church gives the details of the restored peal of six bells and records the thanks of the church for the generous financial support from a number of donors including the Heritage Lottery Fund.

See below for more information.