[Bell Historians] Taylors and timber headstocks

[Andrew Higson, Bellmaster]

charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Well, that's what it says in the job book (the March 1892 bit) but the wron=
g year must have been written down as the iron casting book has it 12 month=
s later, as per my last posting.

Andrew
----- Original Message -----=20
From: David Beacham=20
To: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com=20
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 12:32 PM
Subject: Re: [Bell Historians] Taylors and timber headstocks


I've just unearthed a copy of a letter dated June 1986 from Peter Hayward=
(who then worked for Taylor's) to Chris Pickford. Chris kindly sent me thi=
s copy at that time and I'm sure he won't mind me quoting from it. Peter co=
nfirmed that the three at Egmanton were the first to have CI headstocks (Ma=
rch 1892), followed by the 41cwt Richards Castle single bell (Oct 1892). He=
said that the first ring of six to have them was N.Stoneham in March 1893 =
"...and they came into common use in the Autumn of 1893 with Kendal and Mer=
thyr Tydfil".

Peter also confimed that in 1894, Worcester Cathedral tenor (cast1869, 50=
cwt) was rehung with a CI headstock. That headstock (and the wheel) were re=
-used when the bells were recast in 1928 (tenor now 48cwt). It was possibly=
the biggest CI stock that Taylor's had made at the time.

The 1869 wooden headstock (and hoop gudgeons) remained in the tower until=
we lowered them in about 1980 when we were removing clappers and pulleys f=
or overhaul. They are now on display in the cloisters. The headstock is one=
huge piece of elm that I measured this morning. It is 64ins wide x 32ins h=
igh bx 11ins thick. The cut-out for the bell is 91/2ins deep. The annual ri=
ngs show that the diameter of the tree was probably at least 4ft!=20

DB
----- Original Message -----=20
From: Andrew Higson, Bellmaster=20
To: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com=20
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 2:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Bell Historians] Taylors and timber headstocks


David is 2 years out at Nynehead, actually 1894. It was 3 & 4 of 5 that=
were fitted with CI stocks. The work was completed on Nov 3rd 1894. I can'=
t find a reference to Nynehead in the iron casting books, so it is possible=
they were intended for another job which might explain why they are mis-nu=
mbered.

The first specific reference to cast iron headstocks for ringing bells =
was on 1st March 1893, these being the three headstocks for Egmanton in Not=
ts (Wake up George!).

There is an earlier cast iron headstock - for Richard's Castle which we=
ighed 7-3-4 and was cast in October 1892.

E&OE, just to be on the safe side!

Andrew


---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
---
Yahoo! Groups Links

a.. To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bellhistorians/
=20=20=20=20=20=20
b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bellhistorians-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com
=20=20=20=20=20=20
c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service=
.=20

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ringingworld.co.uk/pipermail/bell-historians/attachments/20050126/6963dc24/attachment.html>