Astley, St Peter

St Peter's Church in Astley is built from the local sandstone and situated in the middle of this small village. The ringing chamber is reached by climbing a narrow spiral staircase.

I rang in this tower as part of a tour in 2004. It was quite different to any tower I've been in before, the pull was long due to the high ceiling and complicated framework. I was a little apprehensive but had a ring on bell #5, it was a little odd but after finding out where to put my feet it went ok. Unusually, the weight of the bells were shown in metric, #5 weighed in at 482kg [1062lb or "9-1-26"].

The Bells

The tower has a ring of 6 bells with a tenor weighing ~14-0-0 in F♯. Additional information on the Church and bells can be found at Dove's Guide and WDCRA.