[Bell Historians] BBC looks at CCC

[David Bryant]

> And now we're back where I started all this several weeks ago!
> Please, show me some firm evidence to prove or disprove your theory.

I don't have statistics, but certainly the vast increase in the reuse of
redundant bells as a result of the Keltek Trust is not in doubt. I think it
is pretty certain that without it the majority of bells reused (especially
single ones as opposed to complete rings) would otherwise be scrapped.

> We still haven't been told exactly how many bells this estimated 3%
> more will be

Does anyone have a figure for how many listed bells there are at present?
Then we can work it out.

>, or how likely it is that they would go through a bell
> founder's hand in the future.

Surely that wouldn't be affected. Listed bells will need rehanging as much
as any others.

> On the one hand we've been told by
> the CCC that the lists are merely advisory, but we've heard from a
> memember of the industry that they are being used in a much more
> mandatory fashion, but no one has added any coroboratory evidence to
> confirm or deny this.

I have written to the CCC, and one of the points I have made is that some
are seemingly treating the lists as mandatory, and it would be a good idea
to reinforce the fact that they are advisory only. Each case should be
judged on its merits, not on hard and fast rules. Personally, I think listed
bells should be tuned if necessary, and that if they are tuned the partials
should be attended to - tuning only the nominal is a daft idea and can make
the individual bell sound worse than it did before.

> If there is a general lack of money for bell work, how come there
> seems to be sufficient work to support more bell hanging firms than
> there has been in this country for many years?

Perhaps this is another reason why the firms are getitng less work - there
are more in the business and consequently the work is spread more thinly.
Despite the fact that there are now more firms, I suspect that if a
comparison was made between the amount of bell work carried out in the last
decade and the amount carried out in the 1920s or 1930s the figures would
show a considerable decrease since the earlier part of the C20.

David