Bell casting in church building

[Hazel Basford]

Hello all,

I am a rookie on this list - and will probably learn a lot more than I will
contribute, but I am sure it will all be very interesting!!

To begin with a question - I recently met a chap doing some work on
churchwardens' accounts for Pluckley, Kent who remarked that they showed
that in the 16th century bell casting was carried on within the church
building. A pit was dug in the floor, there were payments for cleaning up
the church afterwards. In my limited experience I had not come across this
before. I could see there might be advantages of a more even ambient
temperature and so on, but the risk of setting light to the whole building
seem rather obvious! So ... has anyone else heard of this, was it anything
like common practice?

Hazel Basford
Kent County Association of Change Ringers
Hon. Librarian
hazel at b...
KCACR website
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/fwcml/homepage.htm