There has been a church in Llanmaes probably since the fourth century. The present Norman style structure in stone dates from 1234. (A date that should be impossible to forget.) The original stone structure had a small tower on the north side which housed its one bell. The bell was cast in Bristol in the late thirteen hundreds and is the oldest bell in the diocese of Llandaff. The inscription in Latin translates as ‘St Mary pray for us’. That tower is long gone but the access door can still be seen inside the church close to the pulpit. The present stone tower was constructed in 1632 and the churches one bell was moved from the old tower to the new one that year. A second bell was added soon after in 1637 and a third and final one in 1777. The bell and later bells would have been sounded every week in the village of Llanmaes for over seven hundred years.
In 2008, however, a problem was detected in the tower. A slight twist became visible at the top of the tower which required urgent attention. The cause of the problem was that the bells had been hung too high in the tower. A Lottery Grant for over £40,000 was successfully obtained and the work to correct the fault was carried out. The bell frame which had allowed the bells to be sounded traditionally was in too poor a condition to be used further. One of the floors of the tower was strengthened and the three bells stored on the floor. We were advised at that time that this should only be a temporary measure as the bells would deteriorate if left like that for a lengthy period. The likely cost of doing this work was inhibiting. On the other hand, one bell and then the others had been heard in the village for so long that the idea of disposing of them was unthinkable. They needed to be hung from a simple metal frame to preserve them and this is what we had to do.
Over the years people have from time-to-time left money to the church for the preservation of the bells. The late Glyn Williams who lived in Llanmaes and had been a choir boy here left £6000 in his will for this purpose. The Bell Advisor for Llandaff, David Moore, put us in touch with bell hangers and we eventually in 2017 received a quotation of approximately £18,000 for this work to be done. At the time we were short of that target but thanks to the generosity from the Friday night film shows in the Hall and also the huge attendance at the Queen’s Platinum flower show and open gardens the gap was closed. We approached the bell hanging firm of Nicholsons (Dorset) who had given us the original quotation some five years earlier and asked for an update for us to consider. They very honourably held the price to their 2017 quotation. We were on our way.
The bells were removed from the tower in September 2023. (Incidentally, we were not allowed to start this work until a rope hand-rail had been installed on the section of tower steps.) Since then, friends in the village have done a wonderful job helping to clean the tower of bird mess accumulated over many years. The bells were returned to the church in December and re-installed.
The future use of the bells
Although the bells had been heard in the village for over seven hundred years this has clearly not been the case since the early 1960’s. For the future the restored bells will be sounded by means of an electronic control in the base of the tower. We will, for example, use this to sound a bell/s before the 11.00 am service on a Sunday morning. They will also be used occasionally for events such as weddings, Christenings and perhaps, funerals.
