page_title: Cullompton
section_title: Bell foundry and clock making
hierarchical_section_title: Cullompton / History / Economic history / Bell foundry and clock making
caption_attribution_description: English: The stable block at Killerton
context_page_description: Cullompton is a town and civil parish in the district of Mid Devon and the county of Devon, England. It is 13 miles north-east of Exeter and lies on the River Culm. In 2011 the parish as a whole had a population of 8,499 while the built-up area of the town had a population of 7,439
  The earliest evidence of occupation is from the Roman period – there was a fort on the hill above the town and occupation in the current town centre. Columtune was mentioned in Alfred the Great's will which left it to his youngest son Aethelweard.
  In the past the town's economy had a large component of wool and cloth manufacture, then later leather working and paper manufacture.
  A large proportion of town's inhabitants are commuters but there is some local manufacturing, including flour and paper mills. It has a monthly farmers' market held on the second Saturday of every month which is the oldest event of its kind in the South West. It is home to two grade I listed buildings: the fifteenth-century St Andrew's parish church and the seventeenth-century house known as The Walronds.
context_section_description: A Cullompton man called Chubb travelled widely to repair bells during the reign of James I. In 1745 a vestry meeting determined that in order to reduce the cost of having the church bells repaired, the bells should be cast in some part of the almshouses, and a bell founder be found to work there.
  In 1746 Thomas Bilbie, from Chew Stoke in Somerset, created a new bell foundry (The West of England Church Bellfoundry) in the town, paying an annual rent of £1/13/4 (£1.67) for premises in the Almshouse building. He recast the six bells of Cullompton church as eight new ones. In 1754 Thomas's eldest son also called Thomas moved to Cullompton to take over the bell foundry. Over a period of 26 years he cast 239 bells, the majority for churches in Devon. When he died, aged 53 in 1780, his son Thomas Castleman Bilbie took over the business and cast 197 bells from 1780 to 1813. The business was then sold to Pannell and Co. who moved it to Exeter in 1850.
  St Michael's and All Angel's in Alphington has a peal of 8 bells cast by Bilbie in Cullompton, at a cost of £108 12 shillings and 8 pence (£1.63) in 1749. The bell in the Chapel at Killerton House was made by W. Pannell and Son in 1845.
  The Bilbie family were also involved in clock making. In 1749 Thomas Biblie (senior) was asked to make a set of chimes for Cullompton church. Thomas II worked on clock mechanisms to play tunes on church bells at East Coker and also at Beaminster. Thomas Castleman is recorded as having made a clock for Cullompton Church in 1811 at a cost of £55.
caption: The bell in the stable block at Killerton was made by Thomas Castleman Bilbie in 1782.[73]
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