[Bell Historians] Silencers

[.]

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "P.W. Gay" <p.w.gay at e...> 
wrote:
> I don't think there are many still in working order, but I recall 
that about
> twenty years ago the one at Crawley Sussex was put into sufficienly 
good
> order for a (rather clanky) quarter to be rung.

The mechanism at Crawley, W.Sussex is still in working order, as I 
was led to beleive about a year ago. They do not often use it, 
because of the time it takes to set up. I somewhat recall that a Mr 
George Jennings was responsible for restoring the apparatus since 
WWII, (from a conversation with my mother, who used to ring there in 
the 60's and early 70's.)

I have a feeling that I saw a similar mechanism recently in a tower 
around Liverpool, but I cannot say for definate (I may be confusing 
it with somewhere else).

I happened to notice that St John on the wall, Bristol also has a 
similar system, but is however powered by electricity via a series of 
solenoids, and without a little work on it, I doubt it would still 
work (it however appears to be complete).

I am sure there were many more of these mechanisms around after the 
war, which have subsequently been removed and not replaced on 
rehanging jobs, or that have just been left to 'rot' over the years, 
because most ringers wouldnt know what they were!

Philip Pratt.