Council for the Conservation of Bellfoundries (CCB)

[Andrew Wilby]

I'm just about to switch this PC off for 10days. When I'm back on line
remind me to raise the possibility of the CCC or another body establishing
an "intervention fund" so that bells which need preserving without exposure
to further use, wear and tear etc and be replaced with a new bell.

In the great scale of things this might not be that costly pa and there are
substantial sums of money available from such sources as Heritage Lottery to
achieve these sorts of aims. C of E might not have much money but there is
plenty of public money swilling about if you know how to tap it.

I would guess that £200-300K pa might fix the problem to the advantage of
the Conservation requirement, the development of the art of chang-ringing,
the bell trade and the creation of future bell installations of which we
might be proud and wish to see conserved.

In my absence someone might come up with two estimate figures.....

1. The replacement value of bells, either listed or might in future be
listed, that come up for bell-founders attention on average each year.

2. The total replacement value of the listed bell stock. Then an estimate as
to what % would ever come into consideration for "intervention".

My guess is that these figures are relatively small and that with a bit of
initiative we could solve this problem once and for all.

Andrew