The tower at Kineton – the home of the Edgehill Ringing Centre – has been standing for over 800 years – before the remainder of the church was rebuilt in 1315.

In Victorian times however, it was much restored and ‘prettified’ with the addition of an ornate parapet and pinnacles, all made of Hornton stone (from Edgehill..), which had not weathered well.

Major restoration was required! Scaffolding was erected in November 2014 and the work started even in the cold winter of 2014 – stonemasons are a hardy breed!

Fortunately there was no interruption to our ringing activities we just applied the sound control to the clock chimes in consideration of the workers’ ears!  The same did not apply the other way around as on some Thursday morning practices we had to turn the sound up over the sound of drilling outside.

Many stones were removed and replaced and about half of the Victorian parapet replaced with new bell openings and louvres. The workmen reckoned they had never replaced so much stone on one tower before!

Finally this week the scaffolding was removed (about £300.000 later) and daylight entered the ringing chamber one more!