The parish vestry again met, and the report was read but the meeting exclaimed against so extensive a proposal, imputing mere motives of self-interest to the surveyor. The vestry then called in another person, a mason of the town, and directed him to cut away the injured part of a particular pillar, in order to underbuild it. On the second evening after the commencement of the operations, the sexton was alarmed by a fall of lime-dust and mortar when he attempted to toll the great bell, on which he immediately desisted and left the church.

Early next morning, while the workmen were waiting at the church door for the key, the bell struck four, and the vibration at once brought down the tower, which overwhelmed the nave, demolishing all the pillars along the north side, and shattering the rest. “The very parts I had pointed out,” says Telford, “were those which gave way, and down tumbled the tower, forming a very remarkable ruin, which astonished and surprised the vestry, and roused them from their infatuation, though they have not yet recovered from the shock.”