Fw: Re: Oldest Change Ringing bell

[Richard Offen]

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "djb122uk" <david at b...> wrote:
> 
> > You can usually get a pretty good idea of date of a bell from the 
> > profile.
> 
> To some extent, but surely not accurately enough to be able to say 
> with anything approaching certainty that any given bell is the 
oldest 
> hung for change ringing, unless there are any of really antiquated 
> shape in rings of 3 or the like. The exampe which immediately 
springs 
> to mind is the disused bell at Caversfield, which was the treble of 
a 
> ringable three until the mid C20.
> 
> David

Over to the real experts on this one, but I would have thought that 
with all the work done by the likes of Ranald Clouston and George 
Elphick, to name but two, it has become a pretty precise art/science.

The bell I was thinking of, the treble of the three at Snargate on 
Romney Marsh, is certainly more like the shape of the Caversfield 
bell that that of the fifth at St Dunstan's Canterbury - the tenor at 
Snargate is by the same founder as the St Dunstan's bell, so 
comparisons of shape are easy. 

Also, as the bell founder for Snargate tenor and St Dunstans fifth 
has been identified, we can give a fairly precise range of dates when 
the bells could have been cast. Surely that is accurate enough for 
the purposes of this little excercise?

R