Little Bob Maximus at Stockton on Tees, County Durham

Filmed during the White Rose 12-bell striking contest, on Saturday the 5th of October 2024.

The first church on the site was a chapel-of-ease constructed around 1237 for the benefit of the growing settlement of Stockton, and located to the south of the current church. In 1663, Revd Thomas Rudd was given responsibility for the chapel, which in 1705 was declared to be "ruinous and too little", given the growth in the settlement of Stockton. The foundation stone for the new church was laid in 1710, and later opened in 1712. A clock and chimes were added in 1736, an organ in 1759, and north gallery in 1748. The church was restored in 1893, then in 1906 it was reseated, and a chancel added by R J Johnson.

The tower originally housed a ring of six, with four bells cast by Samuel Smith II of York in 1714, and two by Christopher Hodson in 1696. In 1898, four tenors were added by Llewellins & James of Bristol to augment the bells to 10, with a new tenor weight of 26-2-10 (the previous tenor being estimated at 10-12cwt). The bells were said to be “badly out of tune”, with the flimsy wooden frame that the new tenors were hung in reportedly causing serious cracking in the tower structure. Following the 10 falling into unringability, a new ten were cast by Taylor’s in 1953 and augmented to the present 12 in 1983. They are easily one of the best light 12s, going extremely nicely and being very clear in the ringing room/outside but taking some effort to ring well due to most of the bells’ oddstruckness.

The recording is an excerpt of the Yorkshire Tykes’ test piece, being 2 courses of Little Bob Maximus, and we did extremely well, ultimately coming 2nd behind the home team with an impressive 85%, beating some very reputable 12-bell towers in the process! A truly remarkable effort!

Tenor 21-0-11 (1072kg) in Eb.