A bellcote is like a dovecote with at least one difference; the latter is a home for pigeons, the former for bats and bells.
The weathervane depicts sheep doing what sheep do best – following each other. This bellcote has been re-shingled in oak; that’s the right thing to do as it’s a Listed church in a small village in the Cotswolds. Now, imagine, this ancient church stuffed with monuments and tombstones of the greatest merit, is a subsidiary of a big corporation – let us call it the Church of England. Funds are required; time to call head office? No, the C of E expects its members first to pay for its own head offices and then to fulfil their duties to their places of worship. Don’t even think about the oak shingling lasting another thousand years – it will last for forty. So forty years on the church treasurer will be up against it again. It is fortunate the National Churches Trust helps out so many congregations struggling to replace the rotten windows in their own conservatories let-alone their church roofs. But this is a good news story. The parish raised all the money to renovate the bellcote and repair and gild the weathervane. So all’s well until something else needs renovation.
Quite agreed. We have booked for the National Churches Trust Carol Service on the 16th December.