[Bell Historians] Tower arch rope grooves

[Richard Offen]

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "David Beacham" 
<david1.beacham at v...> wrote:
> I've noticed such grooves in tower arches, too. They are not that 
uncommon
> in locations where the sexton could both toll a funeral bell and, 
at the
> same time, by dragging the rope against the arch, poke his head out 
to watch
> for the arrival of the procession. In times past, everybody was 
buried in
> the churchyard (no cremations); also a higher death rate 
(especially of
> infants) and the bell would have been tolled for all of them.
> 
> That's my theory, anyway.
> 
> David B.
> 
> 
It's not a theory, it's fact! At Great Ness, just outside 
Shrewsbury, similar grooves can be found in the tower arch and one of 
the older ringers there (alas, now dead) could actually remember the 
Sexton doing just that which David has described.

R