Steel Bells

[David Bryant]

David Cawley wrote:

> Re the steel bells of Bassaleg (and see my RW article of 23/29.12.00, pp 1259-1263). I don't recall any one > claiming they were good; my
> article said that they weren't at all bad. I think anyone who has merely chimed them in the Galleries at > Sheffield is in no position to
> judge how they sounded when rung: as chimed on the Ellacombe at Bassaleg, they sounded awful. As rung, as I > say, not at all bad - by no
> means as satisfying as Thornborough or Waddesdon, really much the same as Chalford but in a very much larger > tower.

I've heard a recording of them rung full circle. OK, so for steel bells
they're not bad, but by the standards of bells generally they're pretty
poor. Once they had been removed from their tower there was little
likelihood of them being hung as a ring again. Of all the steel rings
which have been removed in recent decades only one has been reused
elsewhere (Hale), and then only because the project was done on a very
tight budget. When one considers the cost and effort involved in making
and installing a bellframe, the end result has to seem worthwhile, which
if the Basaleg bells had been used as a ring is unlikely to have been
the case! I often think the same about reused traditional bells, and
can't really sympathise with those who lament the loss of Victorian
rings of highly dubious quality.

David