The Porch
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Figure 2 Exterior view of the Porch
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The Porch was a late 15th century addition to the church. Just inside the outer door on the east side is a bell which was made redundant when the current peal of eight was installed in 1925 (see Figure 3). It was cast at a foundry in Frome in 1695, and it weighs around 6 cwt. (c. 305 kilos).
Church bells have been rung to summon people to worship since times before the availability of accurate clocks. This church is not just a historic building. It is the spiritual home of a fellowship of Christian believers who continue to meet here weekly to worship God and pray for their community, as has been done for centuries past. Bells are also pealed on important occasions, such as national celebrations, and at times of mourning (when bells will be muffled).
High in the north-west corner of the Porch is a door which once opened onto a staircase to the roof, and also to an upper door, which once would have led to a Palm Sunday Gallery. This door is about 50 years later than the rest of the Porch. The Sarum Missal, which was widely used in southern England, ordered that during the procession on Palm Sunday seven boys should sing from a high place on the south side of the Church.
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Figure 3 Redundant bell replaced in 1925
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It is still common for Christians to commemorate Palm Sunday, the day of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem the week before Easter, by processing into the church. Palm Sunday marks the start of Holy Week, the time leading up to Jesus’s death on the cross on Good Friday, and resurrection on Easter Sunday.
The wooden doors at the north end of the Porch (behind the glazed doors) were made from oak beams from the Tower, which were still sound, though more than 200 years old, when renovations were carried out in the latter part of the 19th century.