St. Helen's.
Register commences with 1538, but appears to have been copied in one handwriting from a book of that date nearly a century later. (See remarks on St. Michael's.) The period of the Civil Wars is noted by much confusion, but there is nothing in the book beyond simple entries of births, marriages, and deaths. The account books, however, which date from 1682, possess a fair average amount of interest. In the beginning of last century various minor improvements and renovations were effected in the church and with the bells. The "chambermen's seat" (meaning the corporation), next the reading pew, "was ordered to be enlarged, and the women's seat next adjoining to be kept as large as now it is by adding the next seat to it." A vestry, held September 10, 1706, ordered "that the churchwardens do article and agree with Mr. R. Sanders,[2] bell-founder, or any other founder, for casting the five bells into eight," and voted a sum not exceeding £70 for founding and hanging the same. An agreement was accordingly made with Mr. Sanders. The five bells handed over to him weighed 85 cwt. 1 qr. 1 lb., and the eight recast 80 cwt. 2 qrs. 15 lb., making a difference of 518 lbs., which is charged at 12d. per lb. This famous octave—the inscriptions on which, in honour of Queen Anne and Marlborough's victories over the French, may be seen in all the local histories and guide books—weighed separately as follows: Blenheim, 6 cwt. 0 qr. 27 lb.; Barcelona, 6 cwt. 2 qr. 26 lb.; Ramilies, 7 cwt. 1 qr. 13 lb.; Menin, 8 cwt. 2 qr. 3 lb.; Turin, 9 cwt. 3 qr. 24 lb.; Eugene, 10 cwt. 1 qr. 3 lb.; Marlborough, 12 cwt. 3 qr. 4 lb.; Queen Anne, 18 cwt. 2 qr. 27 lb. A regular charge of 1s. is made for ringing the pye-bell between twelve and one on Christmas Day, which, I suppose, is in some way connected with the proverbial good cheer of that festive season, just as the "plum-pudding bell" of St. Martin's, and "the pancake bell" which was formerly common everywhere at Shrove Tuesday—
[2] Of Bromsgrove; see article on "Bells."
"But hark, I hear the pancake bell,
And fritters make a gallant smell."
"For tolling ye passing bell as ye prisoners passed by" (to be hanged) was also a constant charge, as likewise the bow-bell (curfew) at night. On the 29th of May, 1723, the churchwarden, in the exuberance of his loyalty, records the payment of 5s. "ringing happy, glorious, and miraculous restoration."
The sum of £134 was expended in the repair of the church in the year 1718, and seven years later £2. 8s. for a font, £22. 5s. 8d. for communion plate, and £4. 10s. for a communion cloth. The expenditure for sacramental wine throughout the whole year 1683 was but 9s. 5d., yet the churchwardens could make heavy charges for sack, quarts of "muskadell," and bottles of canary, for their own consumption. In 1727, the sacramental wine cost £6. 12s. 10d. Every strange minister who preached at the church—as was then the custom in all the parishes—was rewarded with a bottle of wine, at a charge of 2s., but whether the guinea fee accompanied it or not the record doth not say. "Ye parson preaching a sermon on the powder deliverance," in 1725, received 10s. 6d.
A list is given (in 1683) of the "names of pore persons who had coats, &c., sent by Mr. Fra. Haynes when he was mayor, as were bought with ye Quakers' money." No doubt from the fines which were levied upon that unhappy sect. (See subsequent part of this work.) Considerable attention to the poor is observable in these books. A "Spanish bagg" is ordered for Joyce Moorton in 1691, at a cost of 1s. What this article was I have failed to discover. One Stumps, a female cripple, seems to have occasioned a large outlay: there is "for Stumps's wooden supporters, 3s.;" "for Stumps's new leggs, 2s.;" "paid Stumps when she lay in, 6d.;" "mending Stumps's supporters, 4d.;" "for a new supporter for Stumps, 2s. 6d." and "for buriall, grave, and coffin for Stumps's child, 5s. 4d." In 1732, 2s. 6d. was spent in curing one Panting of a "whorscold" (What disease was this?); and in the same year, "paid Mr. Hooke for bleeding and drawing a tooth, 1s. 6d." A room was hired in 1718, for 4s., for "Captain Hemming's wife to lye in," but how that lady happened to come under the cognizance of the parochial authorities is one of those mysteries which will probably ever remain so. A few years later occurs this graphic entry: "Wincot's wife in ye straw (and he not well), 1s." About the same time 1s. was given "to three poor strangers who were travelling from Lancashire to Somersetshire, and by ye account they gave had been slaves in Africa, permitted by ye mayor to ask alms."