[Bell Historians] Re: serious research?

[David Bryant]

> What on earth do you mean? Or are we defining archives differently? Parish
> and Diocesan archives are very valuable resources for the bell historian,
> though incompleteness is probably the main problem here. Don't just stick
> to the obvious; a recent volume of Wiltshire Glebe Terriers has some
> interesting entries on bells. Secondary sources perhaps should not be taken
> at face value, but even then there can be some very interesting material.
> Archivists themselves can be enormously helpful, even if they are not
> bell-minded.

Sorry, I didn't express myself very clearly. What I meant was that many writers of church histories and the like tend to rely on previous published accounts of the bells, often out of date and of doubtful accuracy.

I fully agree that archives are very useful in piecing together the historyof a ring of bells. However, I think it is important to stress the point that they are usually useless in providing a full and accurate description of the currently-existing bell installation. That requires a survey by a bell historian.

David
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