In their book, ‘Church Bells of Warwickshire’, Messrs Walters and Tilley
ascribe the bell to one Johnnes de Stafford, whose foundry was
at Leicester. It weighs about 14cwt (715Kgm)

In the inventory made of all monasteries and friaries by
Henry VIII in 1535 before the dissolution, the only valuable
items noted are a chalice and a bell.

During the time that the chancel was used As a school,
the school rules of 1607 read,  “It is agreed that from the
feast of David and Chad (the first and second days of March)
unto the feast of the Nativity of our Lady (being the eighth
day of September) the hours of the scholars meeting in
the morning shall be six of the clock, and from the said
feast until the first of March again, seven of the clock,
when at the tolling of the bell the scholars shall
assemble and so continue until eleven, and at
twelve o’clock again assemble.

Because the crown had been broken at some time, the bell had not been rung properly for a long time, i.e. with the bell rope turning the wheel which turned the bell right over and back again. Instead a small hammer inside the bell had been made to strike the bell by pulling on a small rope.

The present peal of eight bells, lighter in weight, replaced the old Friary bell in 1960.

The inscription around the bell is in Latin and is translated as ‘Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews’.

Those who remember it say that when the old bell was tolled for a funeral it sounded a truly
awe-inspiring note of doom.