Note 202 — THE TOWER
Reading edition
At Cairnwent, in Wales, the parish clerk "used often to knock a bit or two from one of the bells when any one wanted a bit of metal." In a neighbouring church two bells were taken down and sold to pay for the ceiling of the roof. Many church bells in England have, alas! met with as sad a fate. The same parsimony which has sacrificed the bells has, in many cases, not spared the belfry. It seems hardly credible—but it is true—that some years ago, at St. Bride's, Monmouthshire, there being no ladder in the village long enough to reach the top of the tower, the tower was lowered to meet the length of the ladder.