The Bells of Shouldham, Norfolk

All Saints' Church, Shouldham, stands on high ground overlooking the village from the east, and the parish itself was already well established by the time of the Norman Conquest, with its population, land ownership, and productive resources extensively detailed in the Domesday Book of 1086. The village's history stretches back further still, with evidence of Iron Age settlement in the area, including an inhumation burial containing a rare anthropoid sword uncovered by gravel digging in 1944, and crop marks suggesting Iron Age roundhouses nearby. Shouldham was once an important market town and was also home to a priory founded in the reign of Richard I, to which was attached a large grammar school; the priory had its own church dedicated to St Margaret, which was still standing as late as 1519, distinct from the parish church of All Saints. The present building dates mainly from the 14th and 15th centuries and is constructed of carstone and flint with ashlar dressings under slate roofs, consisting of a west tower, nave, south transeptal chapel, and chancel. The three-stage tower, with its angle buttresses and stair turret, appears to be one of the earliest surviving features, dating from the late 13th or early 14th century. The nave holds a particularly fine 15th-century roof with alternating large and small hammerbeams, its hammerposts carved with angels, while the interior also preserves a stone coffin lid said to have come from Shouldham Priory. The church was substantially restored in the 19th century, with the nave restored in 1870 and the chancel rebuilt in 1871 under the architect R. J. Withers, work financed by the Hare family of Stow Bardolph; this campaign also introduced much of the church's fine 19th-century stained glass, including a notable east window. All Saints' is Grade I listed, and medieval settlement remains immediately to the west of the church are separately protected as a scheduled monument. The tower holds a ring of six bells. The tenor, 4th and 3rd were cast in 1652 by John II Brend. The 5th is the oldest bell in the tower, cast in c1556 by Austen Bracker, one of only 8 bells cast by this founder, and is subject to a preservation order. These four bells were augmented to six in 1870 by John Warner & Sons, at which time they were hung in a new oak frame for six bells. The entire peal was rehung by Whites of Appleton in 2008. The tenor weighs 11-0-10cwt and is tuned to 'Ab'. The bells are rung from a ground floor ringing chamber. 6 bells, 11-0-10cwt in Ab.