L & J and Warners

[Susan Dalton]

I promised to write further about L & J when I had checked some of my 
records. At Broughton Gifford I am sure that the existing small bell was
cast by Peter Llewellin. Whether he also cast the previous larger bell
depends upon how large it was. I don't think L & J had the capacity or
expertise to do anything much larger than 16" until the late 1860s (eg
Middlezoy).

Yes, indeed, the former tenor was by the mysterious founder of the former
7th before Taylors recast it soon afterwards.

I think Alan Furse is perfectly right that East Teignmouth is the only major
ring by L & J which has had no significant attention since, e.g retuning and
removal of canons. However the same is also true of Nantmel and the five
bells out of the existing sixes at Tredannock and Upwey.

On Kings Somborne (no "u") I am pretty sure that whatever their records
might say, it was G & J that did the tuning in the crown of the Warner 1911
tenor. If Warners had understood about the fundamental tone and where to
tune the bell to flatten it, they would not have cast some of their bells
the shape that they did, and surely they would not have left so many of the
fundamentals in their bells so very sharp (eg Somerton in Somerset). However
not all Warners so-called Simpson tuned bells, 1911 onwards, have sharp
fundamentals and I recommend Nigel Taylor to hang around outside the
Lansdowne clock tower in Bournemouth about the time of the hour if he wants
to hear how good Warners could be (and this 25 cwt bell is maiden).

Christopher Dalton