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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In reply to Andrew's posting and David's comments
[I actually posted this at 9.00 this morning but it hasn't appeared yet - so am
re-sending], I can add a little on these bells. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Over the years (mostly some 30 years ago!) I've
done a full analysis of the Rudhall catalogues and documented all known Rudhall
bells. As a result, I simply don't believe the "stock bell" idea as propounded
by Fred Sharpe - although like any founders with sizeable turnover, the Rudhalls
did on occasion re-use "rejects" for other jobs. Chris Dalton and I have
recently explored a Rudhall ring in Wiltshire (supplied at the peak of
Gloucester foundry production in the early 1720s when output reached 130 bells
in one year - equalling numbers cast by the larger firms in the late Victorian
period) made up of "rejects" from several other jobs. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The catalogues were all single-page broadsheets
listing - very accurately indeed (except the 1830 list which only lists some of
the rings) - all the bells cast and supplied by the Rudhalls. There are lists of
1705, 1715 and 1751 (copies at the Bodleian), 1774 (I've never located a copy of
this one but it is known), 1788 (in private ownership), 1804 (in the Newnham
(Gloucs) parish records and reproduced in Sharpe's "Herefordshire" part V as
stated by David) and the 1831list (several copies known). I have
copies.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>On Wotton under Edge:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>1. Clearly the bells were all dated 1756 and
supplied as a complete ring. The accounts quoted by Andrew really only show that
some payments for the work were made in 1757 (i.e. paid after - maybe some
time after - the event). The fact that the main payments for the work (those to
the founder and bellhanger) are not in the first extant book may also indicate
that these accounts were settled in the previous year, for which no accounts
survive. Overall, it looks like a complete job of 1756 to me - but I can't
help with regard to an exact date for the "opening".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>2. Stock bells are unlikely in this case (even if
the practice ever existed). By the mid 1750s the output of the foundry was down
considerably - 24 bells in 1755, 33 in 1756 and 44 in 1756. Abel Rudhall's
probate inventory of 1759/60 shows that only a very small number of bells were
"in stock" at the time of his death.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>3. The Rudhall catalogues show that Abraham Rudhall
I cast a bell for "Wootton" (Gloucs) before 1705. The position of the entry
in the list sometimes helps to indicate an approximate date - but not in this
case. The 1756 octave appears in the 1788 and 1804 lists, and the 1831 list
gives the tenor weight as 18 cwt. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Regarding previous bells, it is most likely that
Wootton had a ring (probably five or six) before the present bells were
installed in 1756. If there were any earlier accounts (and clearly there aren't)
it would be worth looking for records of purchases of bellropes, and this quite
often points to the number of bells. Another possible source is the
Churchwardens' presentments (in the Diocesan records) as defects in the church
fabric - including problems with the bells - were reported to the Bishop or his
officials at the annual visitation. In the absence of full accounts, these
records can be quite useful. I don't know the Gloucester material, but
Visitation books and "detecta" sometime summarise the information from the
individual parish presentments (I've recently been using the Worcester ones
which yielded some interesting and useful discoveries).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>It might be worth contacting John Eisel (the CCP
Librarian) to see if Cyril Wratten's newspaper extracts include any contemporary
references to the opening of the new bells in 1756 or 1757</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Chris Pickford<BR></FONT></DIV></DIV><!-- |**|end egp html banner|**| --></BODY></HTML>