Ash stays

[jim phillips]

Having just returned from a splendid day out I find dozens of e-mails which
seem to be in reply to the following from a M/S Susan Dalton:-

>And what exactly has it to do with bell history, which is what I
>thought - when I joined it - that this list was about?

Surely a stay is an essential part of a ringing bell and therefore part of
bell history with particular reference to the various types of stay. I
understand Gillett's considered having the stay fitted centrally on the
headstock so that when the stay got clouted the force was spread equally
between the two gudgeons rather than all the strain put on the gudgeon next
to the stay. When was the first record of a stay being fitted and where?