Miscellania

[Susan Dalton]

Llewellins & James: many thanks to Matthew Higby for reminding me about 
Shepton Mallet 1910 which I had temporarily overlooked. But are they
definitely iron stocks? If so, they might be L & J's earliest.

Any advance on Clapton-in-Gordano as L & J's first all iron and steel frame
in 1897?

Woodbury bellhangers: Thomas Hooper the elder was the first. He did a
number of Devon jobs in the 1860s but before he died in 1872 had hung bells
as far afield as Alloa in Scotland, Louth in Lincs. and Rochdale St Chad in
Lancs.

Thomas Hooper the younger carried on where his father had left off and did
various jobs in Wiltshire (e.g. Wootton Bassett and Kingston Deverill) and
one in Dorset as well as several in Devon.

The firm was called Hooper & Stokes from 1875 to 1881, reflecting Harry
Stokes the elder having joined. Harry Stokes I went his own way from 1881
and he and Harry Stokes II did many good jobs in Devon and nearby counties.
I go into these and many other bellhangers in Dorset Part III but if I go on
spending too much time on the Bell Historians Website there is a danger that
I'll never get it finishedŠ

Tuning and measurement of partial tones, etc., etc.: I don't think there is
much I need to add to the recent extensive debate!

St Paul's Cathedral tenor indeed appears to be maiden and for 1878 is, I
suppose, quite a fine-sounding bell. Taking the nominal as Bb exactly, the
fundamental is a little flat (A + 42) and the hum almost exactly half a
semitone sharp. All the bells at St Paul's have "old-style" tuning, that is
to say they have flat fundamentals (or "primes") and sharp hums, the
respective flatness and sharpness getting much more pronounced as one gets
towards the front end of the ring. The treble indeed has a very sharp
nominal (cf Mirfield) and whatever the merits of the back bells I do not
personally find the sound of the front bells at St Paul's attractive.

Talking of old-style bells, if somebody with the kit (no, not forks!) would
like the analyse Gillett & Co.'s clock bells of the 1880s at the Law Courts
and Birmingham Art Gallery, I think the results would be interesting.

Christopher Dalton