Limpsfield, St Peter
High Street, Limpsfield, RH8 0DG Find on map
Number of bells: 6
Tenor Weight: 15 cwt
Ground floor ring: No
District: Southern
Practice Night: Tuesday
Ringing Times: Sunday Service: 9.30-10.00am. Practice: 8.15-9.30pm (please check beforehand, Lynda 01883 715085)
Entry: Entry is through the main church door into the vestry on the south of the Chancel. The second floor-ringing chamber is then reached by going up the stairs and ladder
Contact: Tower Contact marlizbell@btinternet.com Marianne Bell
Website: www.lttm.org.uk/stpeters/groups-activities/sub-menu-05
Limpsfield, as Limensfield, was mentioned in the Domesday Book. William I gave the parish to the Abbott of Battle as a reward for help at the Battle of Hastings. The present church dates from 1180, and was probably built on the site of an earlier Saxon church. The oldest part is the Tower, with the main body of the church Medieval with further additions over the years - the most recent being the new church room and toilet completed in 2000. The churchyard is the last resting place of a number of celebrated musicians, including the composer Frederick Delius, conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Norman del Mar, and the Australian born pianist Eileen Joyce. Also the famous cellist Beatrice Harrison, the close friend of Elgar and Delius, who famously used to play her cello in her garden on a summer evening accompanied by a Nightingale. In 1934 the BBC recorded this, their first outside broadcast. A diagram of the churchyard and directions are displayed on the porch notice board.
In the tower the 3rd is the oldest bell, hung in 1436, and reputedly cast in the churchyard by a journeyman founder passing through the parish. It is believed to be one of the oldest bells still regularly rung in the county. The 4th dates from 1619 with the remaining four bells all added in Victorian times. After the last war Mears & Stainbank carried out the latest re-tuning, with the bells re-hung in their original frame. More recently the clappers and bearings were overhauled by Whitechapel in the spring of 2004.