The Brixham Bell

Overview
Location
Tides

The Brixham Bell

Under development - Brixham is a small fishing town and civil parish in the district of Torbay in the county of Devon, in the south-west of England. Brixham is at the southern end of Torbay, across the bay (Tor Bay) from Torquay, and fishing and tourism are the major industries of the town. At the time of the 2011 census it had a population of 16,693.

It is thought that the name 'Brixham' came from Brioc's village. 'Brioc' was an old English or Brythonic personal name and '-ham' is an ancient term for home derived from Old English.

The town is hilly and built around the harbour which remains in use as a dock for fishing trawlers. It has a focal tourist attraction in the replica of Sir Francis Drake's ship Golden Hind that is permanently moored there.

Historically, Brixham was two separate communities with only a marshy lane to connect them. Cowtown was the area on top of the hill where the farmers lived, while a mile away around the harbour was Fishtown where the fishermen and seamen lived. Cowtown, the St Mary's Square area, is on the road leaving Brixham to the south west, in the direction of Kingswear, upon which stands a church built on the site of a Saxon original. The town holds a yearly pirate event which competes for the title of most pirates in one place and this draws visitors from far and wide.
The bell is planned to be sited...

Grid reference:

Nearest station forcast
 (add  approx 10 mins )

Celebrating the bell's installation

In terrific weather on September 2, 2023, there was a splendid event to celebrate the installation of the bell. A group of people, many ringing bells of all types, walked from the Man and Boy statue to Breakwater Beach, where the town band gave a terrific performance.  Pauline Neal spoke about the meaning of the […]

Installation of the bell!

The beautiful day of Tuesday, June 6 2023 saw, at long last, the installation of the bell.  It was a triumph for the sustained effort, over five years, of Pauline Neal and her colleagues, and more recently Chris Bryson.  It could not have taken place without a great deal of hard work from the Brixham […]

Brixham bell delivered from the foundry

Horribly delayed from the proposed installation in July 2020, the bell has finally been delivered to Marcus Vergette's studio from the foundry. Can it still be installed this year? Watch this space.

Impression of the new bell

The bell will have an entirely new design of structure supporting it - illustrated by Marcus Vergette.

Breakwater Beach

The bell will be located at the rocky, Eastern end of the shingle beach, which itself is just beyond the large breakwater that creates Brixham marina - all a few minutes walk from the centre of Brixham. There is a lively cafe on the beach. There is a brief video on the beach here.

 Registered Company   No: 11575853
 Charity No: 1182967
carbon emissions offset by
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram