Visiting … All Saints Carillon

- with Martin Spackman -       

Residents of Faringdon and visitors to the town will be familiar with the chimes of the clock and carillon that ring forth from the Clock Tower of All Saints church, located at the head of Faringdon’s historic Market Place. Those folk are less likely to be familiar with the intricate mechanism linked to the clock that brings the chimes each quarter-hour, and plays a hymn tune at three-hourly intervals from 9.00am to 9.00pm each day.

I recently had an opportunity to visit the Clock Tower with Jon Chamberlain, bell captain, who kindly showed me around the ringing room and belfry. On climbing the narrow spiral staircase from the upper ‘Asset’ room of the church to the ringing room, my eyes were drawn immediately to the framed glass case that houses the carillon mechanism. This can only be described as a giant music box, for indeed that is what it is!

Just as in its miniature counterpart, a rotating metal cylinder some two feet in diameter and four feet long bristles with pins, the pitch and frequency of which act as cams to actuate the sixteen levers that are connected through a series of links, pivots, wires and guides to each of the two hammers that strike each of the eight bells.

I later spoke with Norman Leslie, former bell captain of All Saints, who explained that the carillon cylinder was ‘programmed’ to play seven different hymn tunes, one for each day of the week. Thus there are 112 ‘bands’ of pins around the diameter of the cylinder, with the sixteen actuating levers engaging with every seventh band of pins to produce the tune for that day. After the 9pm chimes (the last of the day), the actuating levers move one position left (or right), ready to engage with the next band of pins for the following day’s tune – all very clever!

To witness the mechanism in action at close hand is truly a sight and sound to behold, with the cacophony of the cam-driven actuating linkages, dancing like marionettes, somehow at discord with the resulting melody!

The carillon at All Saints is one of the few in the country still in working order. Manufactured by J Smith & Sons of Midland Clock Works, Derby, it dates back to 1926 when the Bells, Clock and Chimes were dedicated by the Right Reverend Bishop Shaw.

So next time a north wind carries the musical call of the carillon across the heart of Faringdon, give a thought to the engineering masterpiece that brings these hymn tunes to you, and perhaps ponder on what today’s truncated clock tower might have looked like when bedecked by the spire that was, alas, shot away by Cromwell’s Battery that was based on Folly Hill during the Civil War (but that’s another story!)