[Bell Historians] St Stephen, Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead.

[David Cawley]

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St Mary Abbots, cast as an eight, tenor 21-cwt by Janaway 1772; the old tr=
eble,second and sixth recast by Warner in 1879, and a new treble and tenor =
added to make ten.
St George's Camberwell was a quite avoidable loss. Ringing was stopped bec=
ause of the failure of the church roof in the 60's; I saw them in 1966 in t=
he company of the great Jack Phillips, by which time the whole building wa=
s closed; the bells (which technically were still ringable, all the fitting=
s complete and on ball-bearings) were subsequently sold to repair the roof,=
not a finger being lifted I gather to save them. Later the church was gut=
ted by fire and remained a shell until just a few years ago when it was con=
verted to flats.=20=20
Bill Hughes told me that he really regretted having to break the bells up, =
but therre were no takers, the Diocese wanted its money and the Foundry had=
to balance its books. Again, there was no CCCBR Bell Rescue Fund at the t=
ime, let alone Keltek. Had the bells remained in the tower, they would hav=
e been destroyed in the fire, as the tower was gutted through.
DLC
----- Original Message -----=20
From: jim phillips=20
To: bell historians=20
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 8:01 PM
Subject: [Bell Historians] St Stephen, Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead.


I rang on these bells in the fifties and DLC has confirmed what I had
thought. They were made as an octave with two trebles stuck on later, an=
d
it certainly showed. The trebles did not fit in at all! One practice ni=
ght
a group of the vintage Middlesex ringers turned up ie Sidney Wade,
Glasscock, Millar, Armstrong etc and set themselves up for a course of
Bristol on the back eight. I went outside to listen to some superb ringi=
ng
which told me that the back eight were a good octave and with perhaps a b=
it
of tuning would have made an excellent transplant in a tower that could t=
ake
them. I think these bells were in the key of D rather than Csharp.

Were St Mary Abbotts originally an eight? I heard the Middlesex ring the
back eight there at Richard F B Speed's wedding, and with some good ringi=
ng
at a measured pace they sounded rather grand.

Another senseless destruction was the Dobson of Downham Market octave at =
St
George's, Camberwell. With a reasonable band they played a pretty tune
particularly to Stedman triples. It was quite a live church in those day=
s
being very popular for weddings. The canal was still there at that time
with a very humped back bridge beside the church.



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