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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">From what was told me by someone who
knew it from others who were (I think) involved, the last ringing
was in c1956. It was thought, as also in the case of nearby
Fishlake to have been due to mining subsidence but to the best of
my knowledge in neither instance has this ever been shown to be
correct. (If it was then the NCB would have been respobsible for
repairs). It was related to me that the ringers involved got out
of the tower in double quick time when bits of masonry began to
fall, but I was given no further details. It is my opinion, no
more, that the falling masonry was probably from pinnacles and/or
window tracery and that the damage got repaired as part of general
repairs to the tower which were made in later years, without this
ever having led to the bells being declared safe to ring. The
reason that they are now unringable arose somewhat later; I don't
know exactly when. It is that a new heating system was installed
that involves a large blower blasting hot air down through a grid
into the church below the crossing. The ducting and other
components of this take up the majority of the space in the former
ringing room and several of the ropes fall on top of these large
obstructions making ringing impossible. The bells are in
fundamentally good condition and are regularly chimed from an
Ellacombe apparatus. A survey a few years ago confirmed that the
tower itself had minimal movement when the accesible bells were
rung and that some basic restorative work could bring them back to
good ringing order; this is however currently precluded by other
priorities for church expenditure. A decision was made to spend a
considerable amount on repairing the heating system as the much
more costly option of replacing it was not feasible. This means
that there is no chance of a restoration in the lifetime of the
current heating sytem, which, as I can testify from a very recent
visit, does at least make it possible to enjoy a coffee in a
comfortably warm building. The attached pictures show the problem.
I imagine that further surveys would be required to confirm the
current safety of the tower ahead of any planned restoration.
Concurrent with the survey referred to a similar one at Fishlake
confirmed that the bells are quite properly considered unsafe to
ring.</div>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Ted<br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 23/02/2023 22:05, oliver Lee via
Bell-historians wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">I was wondering if anyone might be able to
shed some light on when the bells here where last rung and
exactly why they are unringable?, the last peal was rung in
1950 and my 1976 copy of dove’s lists them as being unringable
due to “ mining subsidence” but there are listed as ringable
in the 1956 one so they must’ve been condemned in the 1960s or
early 1970s.
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<p class="MsoNormal">Many thanks </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Oliver lee</p>
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