[Bell Historians] Lost Wax Taylor bells

[David Bryant]

From: "Michael Wilby" <michael_wilby at y...>

> As far as Surfleet goes, bells 3 - 6 are definitely
> lost wax; effigies can be seen on the waists of the
> bells in photographs on the 12s site. As David says,
> we're not sure about the 2 trebles of 12 - these may
> well not be lost wax castings, though it is
> interesting to note that they were cast complete with
> flange tops.

And so far as I know, they're the last example of Taylor's casting
flange-topped front end bells of higher numbered rings in this period - they
did it on and off from the turn of the century intermittently when casting
tens and twelves (and occastionally eights). Most bells with them were cast
during the 1920s.

Recently Andrew Higson has cast a few bells with flanges. An extra treble
each for Newcastle and Leicester St Margaret, to match existing bells, and
the two trebles of ten cast last year for St Mary Magdalene Oxford all have
them. The Oxford bells were cast with them as it was judged a better
solution than to drill through their thick shoulders to bolt them to their
headstocks. I've got some photos of them somewhere, which I can stick on the
pictures page if anyone's interested.

Back to lost wax, I should have said for those who haven't come across any
such bells that they can usually be identified by the fact that they have
more ornamentation than the average bell, often taking the form of figures
of saints on the waist of the bell, and ornate borders around the soundbow
and other places. The ornamentation usually stands well proud of the bell,
muck more so than with a bell cast using conventional moulding methods. If
anyone wants to see a picture I have a number of the Lincoln trebles, which
I can stick on the photos page.

David