The details in the above table, as well as the following notes, are largely based on the content of "Cherington's Bells", a leaflet produced on the occasion of the consecration of the restored peal in October 2006, and written by Richard Russell.

The Church of St John the Baptist was built mainly in the 13th century, with its solid tower probably coming after the main church. The first record of its bells was in 1552, soon after the Reformation, as the new Church of England found its feet.

There were then “iiij bells and a little bell” and this note “Mem. The p'ishe hathe solde sythe the last survey one bell to the Amending of highe ways & the Repac'ons of theyr churche.” The little bell was, presumably, in the main tower and not like sanctus bells in a small bellcote, as at nearby Brailes and Long Compton. The main bells would probably have been chimed: full circle change-ringing developed later.

The next important event in the history of our bells was the installation of three bells in 1742 by the well-respected bellfounder, Henry Bagley III of Witney in Oxfordshire: we are not sure what happened to the earlier bells although there is a record of five bells in 1750. Two of Bagley's bells are still part of our current peal and, as the original tenor was probably recast in 1842, all three may still be with us. Gentlemen of the Dickins family (spelt “Dickings” on the bell inscriptions) being Cherington's squires from 1658 to 1920, this work in 1742 was apparently led by William Dickins, supported by the Churchwardens of the day, Nicholas Holtom and Thomas Attwood. The Holtoms lived in the village for some five centuries, and the Attwood name reappears in the 1842 bell restoration. It features several times in Margaret Dickins' Little History, going back to the seventeenth century.

The Turner family acquired the patronage of the living of Cherington in 1832 and Power Turner became Rector in 1841. In the following year, when the old bells became centenarian, it seems he was the person responsible for the increase in the number of bells from three to five. His name, along with that of just one Churchwarden, Edward Timms, appears on the two new bells and the one that was probably recast. The bellfounder was W. & J. Taylor of Oxford. The work was probably done by William Taylor because his brother John, reportedly the better bellfounder of the two, left Oxford in 1839 to establish his own firm, which became John Taylor of Loughborough.

Churchwardens' Accounts show that Taylor's bill for the bells and fittings was £105, while the ring of five bells needed a new oak frame which was made for £25 15s. 6d. This 1842 oak frame was constructed by carpenters Thomas and William Attwood of Cherington, sons of Richard and Anne At(t)wood. They appear in the last two entries of the 1841 census enumeration, therefore undoubtedly living next door to each other. In the 1851 census, when Thomas and William each had two men working for them, their ages were given as 66 and 62; Thomas had been baptised in Cherington on 12 April 1784, and William on 27 July 1788.