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<DIV><EM>Isn't it about time that the Central Council Towers and Belfries
Committee (perhaps with the backing of EH, SPAB etc) produced some guidelines
for Church Architects with regard to this??? If they did - perhaps cases
like Kings Lynn and Kelveden would never have happened.</EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM></EM> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><EM>Matthew Higby, 23/2/07</EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Matthew: since you told me last year about the
difficulties you'd experienced at Marshfield (and also from a telephone
conversation I'd had previously with the tower captain at Kings Lynn), I've
tried to obtain a written 'official' ruling about what should be used to
build-in steel beam ends, particularly as a verbal view had been expressed
somewhat widely previously. I took precisely the same view about
this then as you are taking now. In fact, the subject was discussed
at last Saturday's Towers & Belfries Committee
meeting. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A written 'official' statement has not been
achieved yet. I shall be happy to give you some information on this
off-line, as 'negotiations' are on-going.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>With regard to Arthur Heywood's book, its title is:
BELL TOWERS AND BELL HANGING - AN APPEAL TO ARCHITECTS. It is dated 1914. Let me
quote from his Preface:-</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>'A considerable proportion of architects have
concluded that such mischief <EM>(in towers)</EM> is largely due to the modern
methods of bell-hanging <EM>(ie the methods we should be using now),</EM>
and it with the purpose of endeavouring to disprove this conclusion, and to
explain the conditions under which a peal of bells can be satisfactorily hung
and rung, that I venture, with the support of the Central Council of Church Bell
Ringers, to publish this pamphlet. Any success which may attend the efforts will
be largely due to the valuable contributions of my coadjudicators.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In case any reader may care for some more general
information on the subject of bells and ringers, I offer this in an
appendix.'</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>and a bit from his Introduction-</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>'The purpose of this pamphlet is to make an earnest
appeal to architects that they weigh more carefully the expert views of
bell-hangers and ringers upon highly technical points in connection with
bell-hanging, in which an immense advance has been made during the last thirty
years <EM>(ie up to 1914). </EM>Few of our leading architects take the trouble
to study the nature of this advance, yet few of them can afford to disdain the
growing influence of the engineer on almost every species of building work. But
the proposals of bell-hangers and ringers, mostly based on sound engineering
proinciples, only too often meet with contemptuous rejection. Credo
experto.'</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>There are many other little gems in this style. It
is a superb book. Heywood was a Cambridge graduate of
engineering.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The greatly unfortunate aspect about this book is
that its words were printed almost 100 years ago - and we are still having
problems with misguided professionals. How long does it take...?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Perhaps it should be reprinted and copies
distributed to the misguided professionals.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Just one last quotation; it is his views on
building in beam-ends:-</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>'With either form of casting <EM>(he is referring
essentially to H sideframes)</EM> the tops are all tied together by a
comparatively light framework of bars, and these, on each side of the tower,
should have extensions terminating in angle plates, which should be firmly
cemented far into the walls. It not infrequently happens that the architect will
not permit the bell-hanger so to stay the upper part of the frame, but it is to
be insisted on that these ties are effective in bonding together the walls as
well as in checking the development of the frame oscillations. In Section IV Mr
Lewis has given a comprehensive summary of the results of his elaborate and most
carefully conducted experiments on the oscillations of bell-frames and the
effect on the tower. His conclusions are, broadly, those of the late Lord
Grimthorpe, distinguished, if not always appreciated, both as architect and
engineer, who in a brief letter the The Times, reprinted in Section X, strongly
advocates the rigid attachment of bell-frames to wall'.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Again, how long does it take?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Chris Povey</FONT></DIV><!--End group email --></BODY></HTML>