rain water following the theft of metal from the roof. It was subsequently sold to a private collector. Music is provided now by an electric organ and by an enthusiastic group drawn from the younger members of the church. Bells The ringing chamber is reached by the 15th-century spiral staircase from the ground floor of the tower. The room contains the church clock, installed in 1911 as a memorial to the family of John Rose. The ringing chamber was probably the medieval priests' lodgings, and as such has the typical window giving a view of the chancel. A wooden ladder leads up to the bell chamber. There is a ring of eight bells (tenor in F) hung in the English style for full circle ringing. The earliest recorded date is on the number 6 bell which was originally cast in 1260. In 1584 what is now the number 7 was cast. The current service bell was cast in 1637 as the treble of five. The following year the tenor was cast by John Wilnar. In 1656 the then second (now 5th) was recast by John Darbie. This was the ring "of five bells and a small one" recorded by Hasted in 1797. In 1865 the tenor was recast. In 1670 a Dutch founder, Gerritt Schimmel, cast what became for a while the sanctus bell. It hung on the west wall of the nave until the 1980s. Love records it as having been sold, Wade claims it was stolen in 1982. In 1920 the old second and third (now 5 and 6) were recast by Alfred Bowell and three new trebles supplied to augment the ring to the present eight. In 1923 Bowell recast the back two bells. In 2000 the only remaining pre 20th-century bell, the 1637 number four was found to be of poor tone. As part of a refurbishment sponsored by the Millennium Commission it was hung dead as the service bell and a new fourth ("Carole") was cast by John Taylor & Co. See also List of ecclesiastical restorations and alterations by J. L. Pearson Listed buildings in Frindsbury References Footnotes Citations Bibliography (Actual publication date may be later, bibliographic details are not clear) Church of England church buildings in Kent Rochester, Kent J. L. Pearson buildings Churchyards in England Diocese of Rochester