[Bell Historians] Re: G&J Simpson rings

[David Cawley]

So far as Rochester are concerned, yes.

Old eight recast by G&J in 1921. Two trebles added. A classic and excellent
ring. Tenor 30-0-14 if you believe the tuning books, or 30-0-12 if you look
at the notice hanging over the bells lined up in the foundry.

G&J put them back in the elderly frame which Mears had altered in 1904 when
they recast four of the previous six to make the eight which lasted only 17
years.

In 1921 JT & Co strongly advised against using this wood frame to hold the
ten bells they hoped to install. G&J got the job and kept the old frame, the
results being particularly unsatisfactory.

The towel was thrown in after Maidstone were recast and installed in a new
frame. An advantage was that the Rochester G&J fittings were the Taylor-type
box-section headstocks, which with the wheels and clappers were re-used. New
gudgeons and bearings, Hastings stays & radius slides, and rollers.
Rochester's tower is huge, and the 1959/60 Taylor frame matches it!

There is an excellent new Rochester page (7 hard copy pages long) on
Dickon's Kent site.

DLC
----- Original Message -----
From: "Arcubus" <markregan at a...>
To: <bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 05, 2004 7:35 PM
Subject: RE: [Bell Historians] Re: G&J Simpson rings


> The eight at Finedon are interesting G and J front 7 and a Taylor tenor.
> Don't know why this happened. The effect is very good.
>
> Aren't Rochester a G and J 10 in a modern Taylor frame. Does anyone know
> the answers to these questions?
>
> Mark
>
> Mark Regan
> Arcubus
> 64 London Road
> Worcester
> WR5 2DY
> 0797 1573688
> www.arcubus.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Susan & Christopher Dalton [mailto:dalton.family at v...]
> Sent: 05 June 2004 09:18
> To: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Bell Historians] Re: G&J Simpson rings
>
>
>
> >From: "Andrew Aspland" <aaspland at y...>
>
> > "Why do we assume that Cyril Johnston copied a Taylor bell? He was a
> > pretty clever chap by all accounts."
> > It is not just the bell it is the whole installation - later they did
> > go their own way with many designs but the example at Kirkby Malzeard
> > is so like a Taylor installation.
> >
> [All the early G & J jobs are. Ron Dove once told me that the model for
> Johnston's Simpson-tuned bells was the Taylor chime of 8 at Christ
> Church Turnham Green, Chiswick. That might account for the very thin
> trebles of Johnston's early years (e.g. Wool and Wimborne). CD]
>
> > "...Whitechapel in the early 20s (they took their old style guage
> > which produced bells closest to a Simpson bell and adapted it)?" And
> > never got any closer!
> >
> > Anon.
> >
> [1. What is a 'guage'? 2. This is not fair. After a shaky start,
> Whitechapel were casting first-class true-harmonic bells by the early
> 1930s. CD]
>
>
>
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