[Bell Historians] Ellacombe or not?

[David Bryant]

> (As it has a label stating it was made by Warner it would hardly be
> appropriate to call it Ellacombe, quite apart from the design being
> slightly different)

The term 'Ellacombe' refers to the design rather than the maker. There are a number of variants -some with the ropes tied into a board which is moved down from one set of pegs onto another to pull the hammers close to the bells (e.g. Mallaby), and more sophisticated ones with ratchets, such as Taylor's used extensively.

I would suggest 'chiming rack' as a generic term, but most in this country at least are Ellacombe racks of one form or another. Likewise, the hammers they use which are designed to strike the bell on the inside of the lip, are Ellacombe hammers even if they are operated by a direct rope with no rack. Earlier Ellacombe Hammers are direct-action; those supplied since around the 1950s tend to be trigger-action.

David

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