THE BUILDING
From “The Valley of the Bride” by Canon Edward Daniell, Rector of Litton Cheney 1935-1952 The parish church of St. Mary, stands in a commanding position. Its square stone tower, characteristic of Dorset churches, has stood the south-westerly gales of 500 years or more. Its six bells are mellow and well hung. Two of them are Pre-Reformation, which is an unusual possession. Legend holds that when Long Bredy was in low water, financially, Litton bought their bell! Happily there is no ill-feeling about it for it happened a long time ago. The Tenor and 5th bells were cast in Exeter about A.D. 1500 and so they were rung by the monks before the Reformation, and before Shakespeare was born. They have been rung down the centuries for victories, coronations, weddings, funerals and for daily worship. The Latin inscriptions on the Tenor Bell, the Mary Bell, may be translated thus - "Truly under heaven there is no sweeter bell than I", and on the 5th bell, the 'Peter' bell from Long Bredy, "JESÚS, His name is given in reverence ". The fourth bell was cast in 1656 and is inscribed with the name of the Churchwarden—"Andru Churchel ". Sir Winston Churchill, ancestor of Britain's greatest son came from Lyme Regis. Can Litton claim any link? We, at least, like to think so. In 1848 two bells were re-cast and a new one, the Treble, added, the gift of the Rector the Rev. James Cox. The Octave is to be completed this year by the gift of two bells, one in memory of a resident's son, Lieutenant Kenneth James Harper R.N., who gave his life in H. M. Submarine Thistle in 1940. The other in memory of Harry Ford Greening who was born and bred in Litton and loved his old Parish Church. Have you ever considered the message bells convey? To me our Octave will suggest—"The joy of the Lord is your strength” . The captain of the tower will welcome any visiting ringer to 'take a turn'. The Litton Cheney ringers are a mixture of ages and experience. For those wishing to learn how to ring tuition is provided. Children can learn to ring as soon as they are strong enough to pull a bell. At the Thorner’s school services at the start and end of each term, four of the children welcome the rest to the service by chiming the four lightest bells under instruction from some of the regular bellringers. As the Canon wrote more than 60 years ago, there is no ill-feeling over the transfer of the bell from Long Bredy to Litton Cheney but the story still resonates between the villages. One of our lady ringers, Lesley Salvetti, commented: “When I ring, I do sometimes think about the number of people over the centuries, who have rung the bell I am ringing. I feel I am taking my place in history”.
THE EIGHT CHURCH BELLS
Weight	 	Bell	Diameter	cwt	qtr	lb	kg	Note	Date	Founders 			 	Tenor	42⅜”	13	2	23	696	F	c1470	Robert Russell, Exeter 	Seventh	40¾”	11	3	17	605	G	c1510	William Baker, Exeter	 	Sixth	34⅞”	7	0	2	357	A	1656	Thomas Purdue, Closworth	 	Fifth	31⅞”	5	1	15	274	B♭	1848	C.& G.Mears, Whitechapel 	Fourth	31”	5	1	10	271	C	1848	C.& G.Mears, Whitechapel 	Third	29¾”	4	3	2	242	D	1848	C.& G.Mears, Whitechapel 	Second	27⅞”	4	2	11	234	E	1950	Mears & Stainbank, Whitechapel 	Treble	27”	4	2	11	234	F	1950	Mears & Stainbank, Whitechapel
THE RETURN OF THE BELLS
They are rung every Sunday morning before the service and for weddings and other notable occasions. Also, on Tuesday evenings, the bell ringers spend an hour practising.
The bells were refurbished in 2016 by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough.
From the Western Gazette of the 31st of May 1912 LITTON, CHENEY Bell Restoration: The bells in the Parish Church tower, which have been restored and rehung at a cost of about £50 were formally re-opened on Thursday last week. The fifth bell, one of the two of the pre-Reformation period in the tower, has been restored at the expense of Mr. C. Fry, as a memorial to his late father. Mr. T. Fry. The bells were put to the test at their formal opening on Thursday last, when an enthusiastic team from Bridport and the neighbourhood visited the village and delighted the countryside with the sweet music of the bells. A full peal of grandsire doubles was rung by the following team of ringers: Messrs. W. S. B. Northover, J. Zeallv, F. Powel, J. Tompkins (Bndport), Beans, and Lathey (Bradpole).
ST MARY’S CHURCH
a village in the Bride Valley Litton Cheney Dorset
Photo by Claire Moore 3_7_2021
VILLAGE FACILITIES
COMMUNITY HALL THORNERS SCHOOL BRIDE VALLEY FILMS ALLOTMENTS ST. MARYS CHURCH WHITE HORSE INN
The Parish Church, dedicated to St Mary, is a fine Grade 1 listed building standing in a commanding position overlooking the village. The earliest record of a church here occurs in the Ecclesiastical Valor or Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV in 1291 when it was rated at 10 marks. The earliest known Rector was John de Treskes who was presented by Matilda de Gorges in 1299. That there was a church on the site before the present one is also suggested by the tooling of some of the stones at the base of the tower which is characteristically Norman. The oldest remaining parts of the church are sections of the nave including the south doorway and the porch which were probably built early in the fourteenth century. Late in that century the chancel was rebuilt, the north and east walls being rebuilt yet again early in the nineteenth century. The tower is of late fourteenth or early fifteenth century date when much of the nave, including the chancel arch, was built. The church was restored in 1878 when the north chapel was added. In the south wall of the chancel are two partly restored late fourteenth century windows. The priest's door is of the same period. The altar table, which has a painted wooden frontal, came from Balliol College Oxford, replacing a smaller one. The organ, bought from Magdalen College Oxford, has a single manual and was built by Gray and Davidson; the pedal board is unusual in having the pedals arranged in parallel instead of radially. The freestone panelled tablet on the north wall, with its painted achievementof- arms is a very fine example of its kind. The east window is a modern memorial to a former Rector. The recesses on either side of the chancel arch originally opened through to the chancel. Beneath these were former side altars. The piscina (stone basin with drain) which served the altar on the south side can still be seen in the wall of the nave. The pair of corbels near the east end of the south wall of the nave represent an angel and a dwarf. These supported the south end of the rood loft and must have been matched by a pair on the north side which disappeared with the building of the north chapel. The window east of the porch in the south wall is an original fifteenth century example. That to the west is an exact copy in moulded stone of an original which had decayed beyond repair and was replaced in 1969. The window in the north wall of the nave is a nineteenth century copy of those in the south wall. The epitaph to Ann Henvil on the small brass under the south window is diffcult to read but worthy of the effort. The font is of uncertain date, the top may be Norman. The base is modern. The top bears signs of re-tooling. The 'Devil's Door' on the north side, although filled in, can be clearly seen. The framed painting of the Royal Coat of Arrns is dated 1719. It was restored in 1957. The painting on wood on the south wall represents David playing the harp. It is said to have been hung in the singers' gallery. It is of eighteenth century date and signed J.Fr.l..es. The painting of the Holy Family on the north wall is a copy of one by Murillo in the Seville Gallery. The church plate includes an Elizabethan cup and a cover-paten dated 1574. The clock, blacksmith made in about 1700 or a little earlier, has neither hands nor a dial and was made to strike the hours on the hour which it still does by pulling the necessary number of times on a hammer which strikes the tenor bell. The clock has a two train movement in a "bird cage" frame which was commonly used from the last quarter of the 17th century and throughout the 18th. Both trains are powered by weights giving a little over 24 hours running necessitating winding daily, a task still done by hand; volunteers are always welcome to join the rota for this purpose. The clock, which was neglected from the outbreak of 2nd World War until it was restored in 1982, is now located on a new frame on the recently built mezzanine floor in the tower where it can readily be seen in action. On display are plans of the church, churchyard with numbered references to the headstone inscriptions, together with a list of past Rectors and Vicars dating from 1299 when Edward I was king. The sun-dial over the south porch was added to celebrate the Millennium.
LIST OF RECTORS
Rector Instituted Patron Robert De Everdon 1207 Radolphus de Gorges Walter Giffard 1299 Sir Ralph de Gorges John de Kyevely 1317 Baron Lord Gorges of Litton William Walish 1321 Thomas de la More 1321 Eleanor de Gorges John Waleys 1348 Walter Waleys Elias Fynch de Bourton 1361 Bishop of Winton Adam Kene 1364 Thomas Hyne 1391 Jonh de Wyndsore William Ayle alias Uberton 1392 Robert Rodelane 1399 Margaret Russell and Sir Ralph Cheyne William Sylke 1434 Sir Etephen Hatfield Cheyne John Enderby 1445 Alice Cheyne John Neweton 1467 John Kemys William Moyne 1534 James Blunt Richard Vernon 1548 Lord Mountjoy William Carlton 1565 Edmund Dier John Chapman 1572 Ralph Hurding of Ashley Humphrey Fletcher 1574 Richard Berjew 1593 Elizabeth Colshull Theophilus Quinton 1639 John Filer 1646 Robert Burbage John Filer 1680 John Hurding of Longbredy Francis Fulwood 1690 Philip Henvil 1693 John Pym 1695 William Bendle 1714 George Richards of Longbredy Thomas Pope 1720 John Sainsbury 1727 Bishop of Bristol (per lapsum) Robert Bean 1755 Eleanor and George Richards Edward Colmer ? George Richards John Richards 1765 George Frome 1804 Trustees of John Richards James Cox 1824 Himself James Septimus Cox 1833 Himself Frederick Colby 1873 Exeter College Oxford Frederick Crick 1893 Rev. F. W. Crick William Cobb 1923 Sir Robert Williams Edward Daniel 1935 Sir Philip Williams Wilfred Parsons 1953 Alfred Lynch 1960 Gwyn Lewis 1969 Sir David Williams Harold George Smith 1979 Sir Philip Williams As part of the Bride Valley Team Ministry from 1979 and the Bride Valley Team Benefice from 2002: Tobias Salisbury 1979 Rector Sir Philip Williams Harold George Smith 1979 Vicar Canon John McDougal 1986 Rector Andrew Salmon 1989 Vicar Canon John Atkinson 1995 Rector Anthony Ashwell 1997 Vicar Bob Thorn 2004 Rector Canon Stephen Batty 2015 Rector Jane Williams 2019 Rector
Rev Daniell on his Rounds