Appleton bells / gross tuning changes

[oakcroft13]

Someone (I forget who) asked about gross tuning of bells, up or down 
by a semitone, and I quoted the case of a bell at Appleton. I have 
now looked up the reference - Sharpe's Church Bells of Berkshire, 
pages 10 onwards. The bell in question started life as the 4th of the 
old ring of six, cast by Mears in 1817, note C. When the bells were 
augmented to eight in 1854, Sharpe says on page 14 'Also, the 
original 4th bell had to be lowered by a semi-tone to form the 5th of 
the ring of eight. This was done by hand tuning in the tower, for 
which Messrs. C. and G. Mears charged £3 3s 0d.' The weight of the 
bell appears not to have changed as a result of this tuning.

In 1861, the bells were augmented to ten, by the addition of two 
tenors (given by F. E. Robinson). Sharpe says on page 17 'The great 
disadvantage of this augmentation to ten was that the strike notes of 
the treble 4th, 5th and 8th bells had each to be raised one semi-
tone, a practise usually resulting in poor-toned bells. Especially so 
was this in the case of the 5th bell at Appleton, which in the 1817 
ring had sounded the musical note C sharp, had been flattened to C 
natural in 1854, and sharpened again to C sharp in 1861. It was 
therefore decided to recast these four bells as soon as funds 
permitted.'

(The fifth bell was not recast, but replaced in 1874 with a Rudhall 
bell from St Mary Magdelene in Oxford, which itself was recast in 
1875.)

So, like Dr. Johnson's dancing dog, 'we ought not to ask if it was 
well done, just marvel that it was done at all'.

Bill H