<html><head></head><body><div class="ydp2ebf7d9cyahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;"><div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">That's a delightful and very satisfying story. Thanks for finding it, Ken.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">By an interesting coincidence, I am currently in the midst of a project to cross-reference lists of American tower clocks (turret clocks) with lists of American bellfoundry production. While this particular situation is not within my ambit, it's a great example of finding historical connections.<br></div><div><br></div><div class="ydp2ebf7d9csignature"><div style="font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;">Carl Scott Zimmerman, Campanologist <br>Saint Louis, Missouri, USA -<br> - 19th c. home of at least 37 bell founders or resellers <br><div>Tel. +1-314-821-8437 <br></div><div><span class="ydpb3b8dea8pasted-link"><span class="ydp73140da6pasted-link">Webmaster for www.TSCChapter134.org</span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div></div></div></div>
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On Saturday, February 28, 2026 at 09:45:46 AM CST, Ken Webb via Bell-historians <bell-historians@lists.ringingworld.co.uk> wrote:
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<p>This confirms a clock at Vernon Post Office was provided in 1912
/1913 by Smiths.</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="https://www.readersdigest.ca/travel/canada/vernon-b-c-post-office-clock/" class="yiv6639793769moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.readersdigest.ca/travel/canada/vernon-b-c-post-office-clock/</a></p>
<p>Ken</p>
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<div id="yiv6639793769yqt05596" class="yiv6639793769yqt5424874915"><div class="yiv6639793769moz-cite-prefix">On 28/02/2026 09:39, Chris Pickford
wrote:<br clear="none">
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As soon as I can grab 15 minutes at home to look at this
properly (and read the article rather than just glance at it)
I'm sure I'll be able to make sense of this. I only had time to
check the index and cut and paste the text before leaving this
morning </div>
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C</div>
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<span style="font-family:Aptos, -apple-system, Roboto, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt;">Sent
from
<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg">Outlook
for Android</a></span></div>
<hr style="display:inline-block;width:98%;" tabindex="-1">
<div dir="ltr" id="yiv6639793769divRplyFwdMsg"><font style="font-size:11pt;" face="Calibri, sans-serif" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> Ken Webb
<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:ken44webb@gmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:ken44webb@gmail.com" class="yiv6639793769moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"><ken44webb@gmail.com></a><br clear="none">
<b>Sent:</b> Saturday, February 28, 2026 7:35:51 AM<br clear="none">
<b>To:</b> Bell Historians
<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:bell-historians@lists.ringingworld.co.uk" target="_blank" href="mailto:bell-historians@lists.ringingworld.co.uk" class="yiv6639793769moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"><bell-historians@lists.ringingworld.co.uk></a><br clear="none">
<b>Cc:</b> Chris Pickford <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:pickford5040@gmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:pickford5040@gmail.com" class="yiv6639793769moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"><pickford5040@gmail.com></a><br clear="none">
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Bell Historians] A Taylor bell in western
Canada</font>
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<div>The article mentions Vernon as the original location.
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<div>Ken</div>
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<div dir="ltr" class="yiv6639793769x_gmail_attr">On Sat, 28 Feb 2026,
07:12 Chris Pickford via Bell-historians, <<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:bell-historians@lists.ringingworld.co.uk" target="_blank" href="mailto:bell-historians@lists.ringingworld.co.uk" class="yiv6639793769moz-txt-link-freetext">bell-historians@lists.ringingworld.co.uk</a>>
wrote:<br clear="none">
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<blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;" class="yiv6639793769x_gmail_quote">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word;" lang="EN-GB">
<div class="yiv6639793769x_m_3934291613165200499WordSection1">
<p class="yiv6639793769x_MsoNormal"><span>Here’s the text (i.e.
without the copyright photos)</span></p>
<p class="yiv6639793769x_MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">Headline:
Old church bell will peal back time </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;min-height:14px;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">By
Ron Seymour</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">The
Kelowna Courier </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;min-height:14px;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">An
old church bell now hanging in a downtown
Kelowna garage will resound in a new South
Pandosy urban plaza. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">The
850 lb. brass bell, cast in England in 1912, has
been in the care of 75-year-old twin brothers
Clinton and Orison Wood since St. Paul’s United
Church on Lakeshore Road was demolished more
than a decade ago. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">“It's
connected to our front door by an electric
clapper, and we've been using it as a doorbell
all these years,” Clinton said with a laugh
during a Thursday interview. “Even though it's
in the garage, the bell is very loud, so anyone
who rings our front door gets quite a shaking
up.”</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">The
Wood brothers are glad the bell is destined to
return to the property where St. Paul’s stood
for 55 years before being demolished in 2015.
Local developer Shane Worman plans to erect the
bell in the middle of an urban public square in
a commercial redevelopment approved for the
property this week by city council. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">“That
bell means a lot to our family,” Orison Wood
said. “I always think of our father when it
rings. But it sounds like a good idea to get it
back where a lot of people can enjoy it again.”</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">Trustees
of Central Okanagan United Church, which owns
the bell, have approved its transfer to Worman.
“We’re delighted that Shane wants to do this.
It’s such a lovely plan, bringing the bell back
to where it belongs,” church trustee Beryl Itani
said. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">The
bell was cast by the John Taylor Bell Foundry in
Loughborough, England. The still-in-business
company, established in 1839, is described on
its website as the last remaining bell foundry
in the United Kingdom.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">Builders
of the Dominion Post Office in Vernon placed an
order for the bell and it was on top of that
building until its demolition in the mid-‘50s.
The Wood brothers’ father, Ernest Orison Wood,
arranged through friends in the construction
industry to have the bell shipped to Kelowna for
St. Paul’s United Church, which opened in 1958. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">But
when the bell arrived, church leaders didn’t
have the money to build a proper bell tower. So
the bell sat, half-forgotten on a wooden pallet
behind the church for almost 20 years while an
electronic bell was used on Sundays to summon
parishioners. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">Its
neglect, unsurprisingly, rankled Ernest Wood.
“He didn’t like that the church board just kept
tabling the issue, hemming and hawing, but there
wasn’t much he could do about it,” Clinton Wood
said. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">Ernest
Orison Wood died in 1976, at age 90, never
having seen the bell put into service at the
church. After his death, his widow Jessie
spearheaded a fundraising campaign to construct
a large frame and headstock. In 1980, the bell
was finally hoisted to a place of prominence
near the church’s front door.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">But
it was still a silent bell. It wasn't rung for
another 19 years. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">The
original clapper had long since been lost. And
it wasn't until a church member, Adriaan Boek,
went to Holland and found a suitable clapper
that the bell finally gonged for the first time
in Kelowna, in 1999.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">A
headline at the time in The Kelowna Courier
said: ‘Bell rings for Jessie’.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">From
1990 to 2014, the bell rang on the hour
throughout the week, heard throughout a large
part of the South Pandosy neighborhood. It was
not only a community landmark; it served as
something of a headstone, as the Wood family
buried Ernest’s ashes at its base. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">The
church was demolished in 2015 to make way for an
ill-fated commercial and resdential project
planned by the congregation. Before the wrecking
ball was summoned, however, the Wood brothers
got a jackhammer, cut through the bell tower’s
concrete base, and brought their father’s ashes
home for safekeeping. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">After
the church's demolition, the congregation's
ambitious redevelopment plan fell apart with
soaring costs, and the land was sold for $5.5
million. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">"We
were all sad when we left the building for the
last time, we shed some tears," Clinton Wood
says. "And then when the whole plan collapsed it
was really a devastating thing. A lot of people
were really angry and left the church, but we
didn't. You don't throw away your church because
of an unfortunate circumstance that didn't work
out."</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">Local
builder Shane Worman bought the former St.
Paul’s site a few years ago and won final
approval this week for a project consisting of
three buildings arrayed around an urban plaza
open to the public. The development has less
density than would have been possible on the
site, and considerably more trees and
landscaping than required - features that
prompted Coun. Luke Stack to describe the
project as “perfect” during Monday’s council
meeting. </span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">The
Wood brothers, who both now devoutly attend
Central Okanagan United Church in downtown
Kelowna, are pleased with the bell's pending
relocation back to the South Pandosy
neighborhood.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">And
they think their father will be too.</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;">“I
know this for sure,” Clinton Wood said, “Dad
will be watching from the other side.”</span></p>
<p style="margin:0in;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;min-height:14px;">
<span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal;" class="yiv6639793769x_MsoNormal">
<span>I haven’t had time to identify this
particular bell in the Taylor records (1912)
yet, but around that time Taylors supplied
numerous clock bells – mostly about 7 cwt - for
public buildings in Canada through clockmakers
Smith of Derby who were contracted to supply the
clocks. This must be one of them, but it’s not
indexed as “Kelowna”.
</span></p>
<p class="yiv6639793769x_MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<div>
<p class="yiv6639793769x_MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="color:#1f3864;">Chris Pickford</span></i></b><span style="color:#1f3864;"></span></p>
<p class="yiv6639793769x_MsoNormal"><span style="color:#2f5496;">Knighton
(Powys), UK</span></p>
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