[Bell Historians] Richard's Castle

[David Bryant]

LOVE, Dickon" wrote:

> Some time ago, David Bryant asked me to dig out my photos of the great
> bell of Richard's Castle (in it's up position). I have now put two of them
> in the photos section on Yahoo! 

Thanks. Does it have a counterbalanced clapper? Can't really see from
the photo. The bell is really hung for slow swinging (see how much it's
tucked up), but can be rung full circle and the stay and slider
encourage this. The headstock was of course one of Taylor's earliest of
cast iron. I don't know of any other bells hung with full-circle
slow-swinging headstocks like this - later ones tend not to have stays
and sliders. The Great Bell of Tong (also Taylor 1892, but earlier in
the year) has a cast iron frame and a timber headstock, is hung for
ringing and is not tucked up much at all. It's also still on plain
bearings.

David