Church sleuth tracks down stolen bells
SUPER sleuth Wendy Waterfield transformed herself into a reallife Miss Marple to solve the mystery of the missing hand bells.
Through her sharp detective work she tracked down the precious stolen antiques then managed to stop them being sold on to London’s St Paul’s Cathedral.
Miss Waterfield, 75, captain of the hand bells team at Wentworth Church in Rotherham, was spurred into action when she discovered the 18th century bells had been stolen from a garage.
After alerting police the retired teacher – a spinster like Agatha Christie’s detective heroine Miss Marple – took matters into her own hands.
Acting on a hunch she started contacting second-hand shops, antiques dealers and scrap metal yards around South Yorkshire.
After three days of working through “every number in the directory” she found a dealer who had the set of prized bells. But when Miss Waterfield made contact she discovered that he was on the point of selling them via eBay to “somebody at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.”
Miss Waterfield said: “He had bought them for £60 but was poised to sell them for £500.
“Within half an hour of speaking to the buyer he had returned them to me.
“To be honest I didn’t think there was much chance would ever get them back.
“I just did what I could and started ringing local shops and scrap yards. I was fortunate to hit on the right shop. I just did what I could. I was fortunate.”
Miss Waterfield has been a bell ringer for 10 years since retiring.
She said after her success: “I’ve been christened the Miss we Marple of Wentworth which is very embarrassing. I enjoy Agatha Christie but rarely manage to solve the crime on TV.
“I’m keeping the bells under lock and key now. It’s amazing to think they could have ended up at St Paul’s.”
The bells, which have leather handles and are all tuned to a different note, are used by her ringing group during special events.
Six, in their distinctive red velvet bags, are still missing and Wendy thinks they may have been sold on individually. But she is hoping they may yet be tracked down.
South Yorkshire Police confirmed they are still investigating.
Miss Waterfield says the police are “absolutely delighted” that she has now provided them with a lead following the theft two weeks ago.
But the bells’ would-be buyer is not so happy.
Miss Waterfield said: “I spoke to the chap at St Paul’s to tell him about the situation and he was disappointed the sale could not go through.”