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<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Well, this topic should certainly keep JEC=
going,=20
despite the little foray into links and hyperlinks.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>As I understand it, the first flat-headed =
bell=20
attached to a (solid) iron headstock produced by an English bell founder wa=
s one=20
made for the 1851 Great Exhibition by Taylors. I wonder where (if anywhere)=
it=20
is now ?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>The earliest use I recall seeing of intent=
ionally=20
flat headed bells was I think the back four of the now long-lost ring of te=
n=20
(originally eight) at St Stephen, Hampstead, cast by Taylors in 1872. The b=
ack=20
bells at St Mark's and at St Saviour's, Leicester, were also similarly arra=
nged.=20
In each case the front bells had Taylor's low, square section, angular=20
canons.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Angular canons were a natural development =
from the=20
low plain canons used by Thomas Mears II and his immediate predecessors and=
many=20
of his contemporaries. They dispensed with the argent altogether, leaving o=
nly=20
the solid git to which the tops of the canons joined. Their form and shape=
=20
allowed both conventional 4 x 2 arrangement as well as the radial form much=
=20
favoured by Taylors in the 1850's.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>E. B. Denison designed the Doncaster head =
(or=20
Doncaster canons as he called them) for the newly rebuilt Parish Church in =
that=20
town in 1858. The bells had been cast by Warners, who used the pattern else=
where=20
in a manner not dissimilar to Taylor's use of the flat crown. Thus the two=
=20
largest of three (1859) at All Saints, Margaret Street, London, tenor 28-cw=
t,=20
had Doncasters and the treble angular canons. The four largest at Star Stre=
et,=20
8, 19-cwt, Warner 1861, had Doncasters, and the four smaller angular=20
canons.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>All three arrangements, angular convention=
al,=20
angular radial and Doncaster were ideal when used with an independent crown=
=20
staple, also then coming into general use. It did away with the need for a =
large=20
staple "clump" at the base of the argent, or git, through which the staple=
=20
passed. A cast-in staple was not then recognised as a common source of bell=
s=20
becoming cracked, and could be provided if preferred (as on Warner's earlie=
r=20
bells with angular canons).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>The main objection to the flat head seems =
to have=20
been the traditionally conservative bellfounders' reluctance to drill bell =
heads=20
to accept through bolts. Not surprisingly, Taylor's took the plunge and rea=
ped=20
the reward. The principal advantage of a flat head is that it makes the bes=
t=20
engineering fit with a cast iron stock, which Taylors pioneered into genera=
l use=20
in the early 1890's.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>I don't seem to remember seeing many, if a=
ny, flat=20
headed bells other than Taylor's dated prior to 1890. The late Mr Samuel=20
Benjamin Goslin of the Bishopsgate Foundry and Art Metal Works (and nephew =
of=20
Robert Warner, who had left JW in 1888) invariably cast his bells with flat=
=20
heads: the two earliest are the 2nd and 3rd at St Alphege, Canterbury, 1893=
and=20
1894. Both are attached to conventional wooden fittings. Perhaps his none t=
oo=20
melodious activities deterred Warners. The latter's Chatham ring (tenor 25-=
cwt)=20
of 1897 has Doncasters on the four trebles and flat heads on the tenors (wo=
oden=20
headstocks on all) - see the relevant page by Dickon on <A=20
href=3D"http://kent.lovesguide.com">http://kent.lovesguide.com</A> whe=
re a=20
contemporary print of them in my possession is reproduced.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>I really don't know about Gillett's, other=
than=20
that they were using Doncasters in the 1880's - with cast-in staples, I thi=
nk.=20
Llewellins and James possibly used flat crowns of some of their bells in th=
e=20
1890's, and I have seen one small one with Doncasters. L&J more general=
ly=20
used traditional, small round shouldered square section canons until they=20
totally abandoned them c.1910. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Finally Mears I am sure only commenced usi=
ng=20
Doncasters in the post-Stainbank period (i.e. after Arthur Hughes joined th=
e=20
firm under Alfred Lawson) after 1884. Until then they used traditional cano=
ns.=20
Cast-in staples usually featured earler on. I cannot recall a flat-headed=20
19th-century Mears bell; in fact the earliest that comes to memory is South=
wark=20
Cathedral tenor of 1911, with an iron stock; but there must be earlier ones=
of=20
theirs than that. The use of Doncasters hung on as at Petham (with woo=
den=20
stocks) and Canterbury Cathedral two trebles in twelve, with iron stocks, o=
f the=20
same year 1923. No doubt the decision to use Doncaster canons there was=20
reinforced by the fact the the 3rd, 4th and 5th of the augmented ring had=20
traditional ones - the same general reason for the more recent case at Pebw=
orth.=20
By contrast, Wetminster Abbey four trebles in 8 (1919) also on iron stocks,=
had=20
flat heads, the canons on the four largest bells being removed.</FONT></DIV=
>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>There may be too many if's and but's in th=
e=20
foregoing, but I hope it will give food for thought - or at least provide s=
ome=20
good bedtime reading. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>DLC</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>