The Tower and Bells of The Parish Church of St Thomas Stourbridge by Martin D Fellows, Tower Keeper

The western tower was completed by the year 1759 - some 30 years after work had commenced on the building of the New Chapel, as St Thomas's was then called. Built of local hand-made bricks costing only a few shillings per thousand, it is 100 feet high. There are 128 steps from ground level to the roof, from which may be had views over the township of Stourbridge extending to the Clent and Rowlet Hills, Lye, Dudley, Brierley Hill, Sedgley, Wollaston, Wordsley, Norton, Oldswinford and Pedmore.

The tower was restored in 1970 at a cost of over £5,000. It houses a ring of ten bells, the weights of which range from 4 and a half cwt (treble bell) to 18 and a half cwts (tenor bell). The total weight of the bells, excluding the iron and steel frame in which they hang, is some 82 cwts. The bells are made of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin.

Of the bells now in the tower, three formed part of the original ring of eight bells cast in 1759 by the London bell founders Lester & Pack. The remaining bells of this original ring of eight bells were recast in 1901 and 1935. The two treble (smaller) bells were added in 1969 to increase the ring to ten. At this time a new cast iron and steel bell frame, replacing the original oak structure of 1759, was installed. The work was carried out by Messrs John Taylor and Co, bell founders of Loughborough, the total cost of restoration being £2,800. The two new bells were the separate gifts of Frederick V Nicholls and Charles William Cooper, both ringers at St Thomas's for many years.

This ring of ten was augmented to twelve in 1982, the additional two bells being cast again by John Taylor & Co. In 1999 the 9th, 10th and 11th bells of the ring were transferred to the bell tower of the Town Hall at Berwick-upon-Tweed, Nothumberland for use in the restoration of the eighteenth century Whitechapel octave in that building, and replacement bells for St Thomas's Church were cast by John Taylor & Co. At the same time the 7th bell was replaced by a new bell, the former bell being retained in the tower and hung "dead" for use as a Service Bell.

The ninth bell of the ring of twelve, cast to ringing weight and profile in 1928 by John Taylor & Co, was the clock bell of the former Dewsbury Infirmary, Yorkshire, and a memorial to Samuel Senior of that town. Upon the demolition of the infirmary in 1996 the bell was acquired for use in the remodelling of this ring of twelve bells.

The bells are regularly rung on Sundays for the main church services of the day. The society of ringers was established prior to the year 1771 under the style of the Stourbridge Society of Chapel Youths, although today they are known as St Thomas's Society of Change Ringers.

Tablets in the ringing chamber record notable peals rung on the bells in past years. One record is of a quarter peal of 10,080 changes of Bob Major rung in 1773 and which took 6 hours and 20 minutes to perform. The bicentenary of this event was celebrated in 1973 when eight members of St Thomas's Society of Change RIngers rang the same peal again, but in the slightly quicker time of 5 hours and 38 minutes.

The clock in the tower is curious in having only three faces, Installed in the year 1878 by the London firm of Charles Frodsham & Co, it was electrified by John Smith & Sons of Derby in 1973, the cost being borne by the former Stourbridge Borough Council.