William Wooding Starmer

[jim phillips]

Andrew Bull wrote:-
"A very interesting story, but which would you rather have - a 53 cwt old
Whitechapel twelve, or a 54 cwt Gillett & Johnston twelve ? I know which
would be my choice!"

Recordings exist of the two rings although the BBC time signal was on the
back ten of the old Whitechapel ring. The Whitechapel trebles of 1881 to
make them up to twelve were, I was told, not up to the musical quality of
the back ten of 1762 (tenor 1738) People can make up their own minds by
listening to the recordings of both the pre-war rings. Even in the
recording of the Gillett ring one can hear the distinctive 'harp like
quality' of the Whitechapel bells that were not recast (bells 3,4, 9 and 11
I believe), pure silver among the potage of Croydon's cacophony of imitation
orchestral sounds.

With regard to WW2, it is an interesting fact that the two twelves that
survived the blitz on the City of London (St Paul's and Cornhill) hung in
wooden frames. The pre-reformation five at Smithfield were carted off to
Somerset. The bells of St Magnus, St Dunstan in the West, St George's
Camberwell and the post war eight of St Dunstan in the East were all lost
due to ringers lethargy of which I was a part. The six at St Andrew
Undershaft, hung dead in my time, do not now even have a chiming frame and
will probably remain silent for ever and this in the church where Stedman
was buried.