Canon retaining headstocks

[Richard Offen]

> I have not personally seen many of that shape and was wondering 
> what the merits of that design are, and is the design still used.
> Also, how many "coffin" style canon retainers did G + J supply 
and 
> was this the only style of canon retaining headstock they used?
> How many of the now defunct bellhangers and founders supplied 
> canon retaining headstocks?
> A lot to answer I know!
> 
> Alan

As Father Cawley said, there must be hundreds of the old style 
Whitechapel canon retaining headstocks about. The early version of 
these used the canons to suspend the bell, but this was superseded 
(in the 1950s, I think?) by an adaptation using bell bolts. I still 
like the look of them, but they were not the greatest design in terms 
of bell dynamics.

Speaking of which, the Gillett coffin stock, fabricated out of plate 
steel, was a later Gillett design which I think came in either in the 
late 30s or after the Second World War. Prior to this G & J used a 
cast-iron 'pot' stock, which was equally bad in terms of bell 
dynamics. 

These pot stocks are fitted to the fourth and fifth bells at Great 
Ness, Shropshire, where I used to ring (G & J, 1932): the bells are 
pigs to get up right unless you acquire the knack of checking hard at 
just the right moment; once up, the clappers are so sluggish you can 
almost hear them groaning at the thought of the trip across the bell!

R