Dumb Bells

[David Bryant]

When I wrote my RW article on the history of dumb bells about a year ago
(also available online) I thought it was surprising that, so far as I knew,
nobody had acquired an old bell and hung it for ringing without a clapper
for use as a dumb bell. It has not been done though, according to the Devon
ringers' newsletter (http://www.ex.ac.uk/gdr/rrd/dec02/rrd.html), at
Bampton, by acquiring a superseded bell from Compton Abbas in Dorset. From
the picture of the bell, it appears that its headstock is a new fabricated
one by Nicholson Engineering, and the bearings (or the housings at least)
look like old Whitechapel parts - presumably they were the bearings with
which the bell was hung at Compton Abbas. Does anyone (CJND?) have details
fo what was carried out at Compton Abbas?

David