[Bell Historians] Arreton

[s.ivin at n...]

> Does anyone know of any other instances where a bell now occupies a position
> "higher up" the ring?

We did a similar thing at Oxford St Thos when the original 6 were retuned in 1992,
because nos. 1, 2, 5 & 6 were on a decidedly thick scale - such that they were
tuned down from (tenor) 1000 to 900 Hz - nearly a whole tone. This enabled a
bit of improvement to the partial relationships, but only got octave hum on
2 of them. The old 4th became the 3rd, and a new bell was cast for the 4th.

Another factor was that while this was in progress we already had our sights on
augmenting with 3 trebles and a tenor, so the new 4th had to admit later retuning
down one semitone to make the 7th of 10, in 1993.

However in 1996 all the remaining 5 old bells were recast, so nothing of
this now remains except facsimile inscriptions.

I tried to get the Vicar to agree to 'God help the Church of England' being used
as an inscription - suitably Rudhallian I thought, particularly if facsimile
stamps could have been used. However we compromised on 'God save the Church of
England'. It didn't seem sensible to ask for faculty permission!

SI