WARRINGTON Civic Society has launched an urgent fundraising appeal to save the historic Crosfield Bell which was recently removed from the bell tower at St Thomas’ Church in Stockton Heath.
A total of £5330 is needed as a deposit by February 12 to prevent the Bell, donated by John Crosfield in 1883 in memory of his wife, being lost to the town forever.
The Walton Lea Partnership has offered in principle to host the returned bell in their walled gardens. These are the remains of the grounds of John Crosfield’s house.
The Civic Society is in the process of setting up an online donation site and £1000 has currently been pledged.
Civic Society Chairman John Shipley said: “We have literally two weeks to save an important piece of our town’s history. The Civic Society has only recently been reformed and we do not have the funds available to save the bell ourselves.”
If it is not possible to return the bell, any funds already received will be shared 50/50 between the Walton Lea partnership, a local charity that provides supported employment for adults for learning difficulties and establishing a ‘fighting fund’ for the Civic Society, which would allow them to better fund campaigns, including the recent one to try and save the water tower at the Cabinet Works in Warrington town centre.
The one ton 134-year-old tolling bell, has been valued at £10,660 including VAT and will be melted down if the Civic Society can not find funds to preserve it and keep it in the town.
It has not seen active service for decades and was donated to the church by John Crosfield in 1880 in memory of his first wife Eliza, who sadly died when she was only 37 and after bearing him five sons and four daughters. She died in 1882.
The bell is currently the property of specialist contractors John Taylor & Co from Loughborough – the same company who installed it.
Any one interested helping with a donation to save the bell should contact Civic Society Chairman John Shipley by email at [email protected] or by calling 07954 521 972.
4 Comments
I think it would be very fitting for the bell to be housed somewhere in the grounds of Walton Lea with that once being the home of John Crosfield and his wife Eliza who the bell is inscribed in memory off.
Has an online ‘giving page’ been created as more people are likely to donate towards it if they can do it by a simple click from their home computers or mobile phones especially with time being very limited. Every donation, however small, will help towards reaching the amount needed to hopefully buy back and save the bell before it’s too late.
Dizzy, we are working on it. In the meantime, we are still open to old fashioned cash or cheques. Or, if people get in touch we could arrange a direct transfer.
You might get a better response if any money not used was donated 50/50 between the Walton Lea Partnership and St Thomas’s Church building fund.
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