[Bell Historians] Re: Coalbrookdale was Warners bells

[jimhedgcock]

---This item reminded me of comments concerning Liverpool Cathedral 
bells. There were all sorts of statements about where the bells could 
be best heard - in the streets on the North side, in the city 
centre, on the Wirral etc etc. These statements were not easy to 
disprove unless one wanted to take the trouble of checking them. I 
didn't bother with the claim that they could be heard in Southport 
twenty miles away!
When I was a lad living in St. Helens I used to go there quite a lot. 
( I used to think that my home tower of St. Thomas were good - 1&2 
Whitechapel 1933, 4-8 C & G Mears 1845. I don't hold that opinion 
now!) Peals were quite common then. I did wander round the North side 
and the city centre. I even took the ferry to the Wirral when peal 
attempts were in progress. None of the claims withstood 
investigation. The best place I found to listen to them was on tthe 
staircase, and they were fairly indistinct then.
Oh, what could have been achieved if David Potter had done his 
teacher training in Liverpool instead of York! Might Liverpool have 
emerged as one of the finest twelves in the land!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Could 
they have been transformed as the Minster bells have been?
I remember talking to Bill Theobald who reckoned that the quality of 
Liverpool bells had partly resulted from them standing for some 
considerable time between being cast and being hung. He thought that 
the sound of bells going straight from casting to hanging was perhaps 
not as good as it might have been. I got the impression that he 
considered bells to be like stored wine - improving with age.