Around 1892 the old bell frame was suspected of being at or near its end and was, in the opinion of many, due for replacement. The records held in the North Yorkshire County Record Office contain a number of letters and other papers related to the developments in the tower at this time.

Several bell hangers and founders were consulted and prices were obtained for the job. William Snowdon, a very well known Yorkshire bell ringer who started the Snowdon series of books and pamphlets on ringing and conducting and who was responsible for the founding of the Yorkshire Association of bell Ringers, was a Structural Engineer working from Leeds. He had some forthright views on several of the firms' suggesting ways of 'fixing' the bells. His long letter telling the Rector and the ringers of Richmond how to go about the job is extremely straightforward about Thomas Mallaby of Barnby Dun, near Doncaster.

Thomas Mallaby worked with John Warner and acted as the bell-hanger for many Warner jobs in the latter part of the 19th century. In the end Mallaby got the contract and the frame was replaced in 1894 with pits for eight bells, although only the six current bells, with the 1862 re-cast Warner tenor, were fitted. The other two bells to make the octave had to wait until Albert Morton of Richmond spearheaded the project to augment the six to eight.

There is nothing in the records that have been found to date to give any reason why the tenor was 'found to be cracked' and had to be replaced, as stated on the wooden headstock of the tenor and mounted in the tower in the exhibition.Some suspicion has fallen on the commonly used technique of 'clocking' the tenor by swinging the clapper by a rope fitted to the ball and flight. It is known that this can lead to a crack forming as the clapper is held too long against the bell, thereby preventing it from vibrating freely.