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The Tower and Spire
There has been confusion about the date of the tower and spire.   Cox's Churches of Derbyshire (1877) records that in 1710 a visitor, Bassano, a resident of Derby, noted a scroll of lead which recorded that the tower and spire were completed in 1340.   Bassano's note referred explicitly to "the prior's church", but Cox wrongly believed that this must have been a mistake for the parish church.   (The priory church was demolished by Gilbert Thacker in the reign of Queen Mary to ensure, so it was said, that the priory would not be refounded.)

The developed perpendicular style of the windows and plinth of the tower are the real evidence for its date, and it is now generally accepted that the tower and spire were built in the 15th century.   The slender spire rises to 212 feet. The belfry has a vaulted roof, which has been pierced to allow the bells to be rung from the floor level.   The earliest bell in the bell tower was cast by Richard Brasyer of Norwich, who died in 1513.

The oak screen in the base of the tower was built in 1973 as part of the partition surrounding the organ pipes that stood briefly at the west end of the north aisle.   It incorporates panels from mediaeval pews saved in the 1792 alterations, some of them carved with the arms of families connected with Repton.

Repairs
From the Parish Magazine of April 1899

"The earliest mention of (the spire) being repaired is in 'Churchwardens and Constables accounts', under the year 1609, where there is the following entry:- 'It. Payde fore poyntinge the steeple £5.'   Bigsby refers to this, and adds that 'the whites of a large quantity of eggs were mixed with the mortar.   The eggs were collected by a poor widow of the parish.'

"In the year 1721, it was struck by lightning, and was rebuilt by John Platts and Ralph Tunnicliff, of Ashbourne, at a cost of £67.   In 1784 the upper part was again injured by lightning, and rebuilt by Mr Thompson, of Lichfield, and cost £60.

"In the year 1804, Joseph Barton, a native of Repton, fixed a series of twelve ladders to the south eastern facet of the spire, mounted to the weathercock, and brought it down.   Adorned with streamers of ribbon, it was carried round the village, then repaired and replaced.   Barton received £10, plus a goodly collection made among an admiring crowd of villagers, and others.   Sad to relate, a few years later, he met with his death whilst repairing the spire of Twyford Church; the scaffold gave way, he fell to the earth and was picked up dead.

"During the years 1857-8 the spire was again repaired, a new weathercock was placed on it, and to guard against lightning a conductor was fixed to the north-western facet.

"For some time past now a crack has been observed on the eastern facet of the spire, three or four courses from the top.   On Friday, the 17th March, Robert Holmes and Thomas Bignall, steeplejacks in the employ of Mr J W Furse, of Nottingham, made an ascent (up the same south-eastern facet used by Joseph Barton) by ladders, eleven of them, each ten feet high.   A careful examination proved that, in the repairing done in 1857, iron clamps were used to brace the stones; these clamps have oxydised and swollen so as to split many of the stones and joints.   The pinnacles and about thirty feet of the spire will have to be taken down and rebuilt, and in addition the whole of the tower and spire require pointing and other repairs, which the architect, Mr R Naylor, of Derby, estimates will cost £400.

"The height of the tower is 90 feet and that of the spire 112 feet."



From the Parish Magazine of November 1925

"You will see great things happening to the Church Spire during the coming months.   Another firm has been employed, viz Messrs Thompson of Peterborough, and they are going to remove the faulty stone, which has been very badly cracked owing to iron girders running through the Spire.   Each stone, 78 in all, is to be taken out separately and new ones put in their place.   The bells also are to be re-hung on a new cage which is to be considerably lowered.   This will give more strength and will do away with a great amount of vibration, which has undoubtedly done a great deal of damage to the Spire.   I am sure it will be a delight to all to hear the old bells ring again.

"The cost of the whole work is to be roughly £950. This seems a lot of money, but there will be no work needed to our Spire, at any rate, in our lifetime."



From the Parish Magazine of February 1926
lnglesthorpe Manor, Wisbech 28 November 1925

Dear Sir,

Noticing that some repairs to the steeple of your church are necessary recalls an incident of 67 or 68 years ago when the weather vane needed attention.   A small line was cleverly carried over the apex of the spire by a kite and dropped on the ground.   A heavier line was attached and pulled up by the workmen employed.   As might have been anticipated the join stuck on the rod extending above the stonework of the spire and the efforts of the workmen to dislodge it resulted, to the astonishment of the onlookers, and presumably to their own, in seeing some twenty feet of the spire totter and fall.   In its descent it broke some of the pinnacles of the tower and I believe killed some sheep at its foot.   The operation was regarded as so slight that the steeplejack was content to ascend by the rope to examine the vane and so avoid the expense of a scaffolding.   Fortunately for him that the break did not occur when he was aloft had the rope been adjusted in proper manner.

I wonder if any Repton inhabitant is alive and can confirm my tale, though the Parish Accounts will go far to do so.
Yours faithfully,
J M Bland (an old Reptonian)




From the Parish Magazines of May and June 1928

(After the church was struck by lightning)

"In the course of Sunday Services (April 15) the Vicar offered special thanks for the providential escape of the Church from serious injury, during the recent severe thunderstorm."

"The disturbance caused by the lightning to the upper part of the spire has been reported upon by the experts called in to inspect.   The Church Council were much gratified to receive a further report from the Vicar's Warden, who on May 1, at 9 a.m. climbed to the weathercock and made a thorough investigation.   We are quite sure that the village generally will share in the appreciation of Mr Fuller's voluntary and hazardous service in the interests of the parish."