A HISTORY OF HOLY TRINITY CHURCH, BOTTISHAM
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Architects reports (e.g. Weir 1910) have suggested that the tower was
intended to have a wooden spire: at one time the majority of English churches had
a steeple. Braun (1972) commented that many steeples were removed during the
late Middle Ages and replaced with lead flats, as a result of damage by high winds
and lightning-strike; lightning-conductors were not invented until the 17th
century. The repair of steeples was a major expense on small communities
pauperised by population loss through the ravages of the plague. Henry VIII, in
1539, ordered that the steeples of abbey churches should be destroyed; an order
that would not have encouraged the repair of steeples on parish churches. Did
Holy Trinity once have a steeple?
Over the centuries the tower has suffered from the weight and vibration
of the bells. The frame was made for four bells and when the treble bell was
added in 1839 the frame was altered in a very unsatisfactory way. The frame sides
were close against the walls and the damage caused by the oscillations was made
worse by wedges, driven in on the north and south sides, to steady the frame. A
drawing made by Richard Relham (1800) clearly shows the cracks on the south
wall of the tower. His drawing also shows missing features - the sundial and
images in the recesses.
THE BELLS
Bells are an essential part of English country church tradition:
Bottisham is especially fortunate in this respect. In 1910, Weir reported that four
of the, then, five bells swung north to south which caused fissures in the west wall.
The Relham drawing shows major fissures in the south wall. The earlier frame
carrying the bells was made for four bells. Details of the bells appear in “The
Ringing World” (1978). The five bells were rehung in a new oak frame in 1929.
The loan of the treble bell from Kirtling, and the recasting of the cracked
Bottisham treble at the Whitechapel Foundry, completed the ring of six. The fifth
bell is a rare example of the Cambridge Foundry work; it is listed for preservation
and was cast in 1590 (ibid). The bells are now rung from the first floor of the
tower but the mouldings, of both the east and west ground-floor arches of the
tower, show signs of bell rope wear, indicating that the bells were once rung from
the ground floor.