[Bell Historians] Roger Purdue I

[David Bryant]

> Thanks, but is this a 'one-off'? Most of the Roger Purdue tenors I know
of
> in Wilthire are in the 10 - 15 cwt range.#

Nope - the old Redcliffe tenor (which I think as scrapped at 39 cwt) was
also a Roger Purdue bell. There's a description of it in the appendix to
L&J's treatise on bellfounding. Obviously, the bell was broken up when the
present heavier tenor was cast in 1903. I think it's fairly safe to assume
that this was actually the largest Purdue bell - I had forgotten it when I
wrote my earlier email.

Roger and Richard could cast excellent bells (although not always): Queen
Camel tenor could pass for one of the best modern bells. Redcliffe 11th is
excellent too, as are some others. Not seen enough by William to know. Bells
by George tend to range between OK (e.g. 2nd and tenor at Bishops Hull) and
really dire (e.g. 2,3,5,6 at Staplegrove).

David