[Bell Historians] Re: Bixley, Norfolk

[Neil Skelton]

It may be that the two Phelp's bells were stored temporarily in Burham Old
Church after removal from the 'new' church which was demolished 1981.
Certainly they were not there on 11th July, 1980 when I photographed and
took a rubbing of the de
Wymbish bell on 11th July, 1981.

At the time of the theft I was TCCT Field Officer for Kent. I discovered
the theft of the de Wymbish bell in 1982 after the church been broken into
within a day or two of my visit. The tragedy of this was that after
pressing, what was then the Redundant Churches Fund, to get the bell hung in
the tower and had been doing so for two years, it was stolen a matter of
days before it was due to be hoisted back to its former home.

I am in possession of a set of photocopied newspaper cuttings relating to
the removal of
the bells showing one of the Phelp's bells being lowered by Richard Offen
and Sean Smith. Anotations by DLC give the date of this operation as 1981?
This date does not tie in with earlier date on which the de Wymbish bell was
returned to the old church which was definitely there in 1980! The name of
the publication(s) and dates are missing. As any
historian should know it is essential to include the name and date of
publication! Quite apart from the interests of accuracy, it does aid a
failing memory!

Neil Skelton.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Offen" <richard at s...>
To: <bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 4:52 AM
Subject: [Bell Historians] Re: Bixley, Norfolk


>
>
> --- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "George Dawson" <George at d...>
> wrote:
> > Your garage?????
> >
> > GAD
>
> Probably not on this occasion, but you should have seen the pair of
> us struggling, many years ago, to get the future treble for Preston-
> next-Wingham (ex-Burham treble) into the back of a Ford van I'd
> borrowed and up the steps into the vestry of DLC's church in Dover!
> It was an extremely wet and stormy night and I seem to remember the
> reverend gent uttering some most unclergymanlike oaths about the
> design of Ford 5 cwt vans and vestry steps!
>
> As usual, it was one of those rush jobs. Contrary to what it says
> on the Burham New Church page of Dickon's CBOK, the two Phelps' bells
> did not go directly to their new homes, but went to be stored at
> Burham Old Church. Alas, not long after the transfer, the Richard
> de Wymbish bell was stolen and we feared for the safety of the other
> two bells, the treble being the earliest example by Richard Phelps
> (http://kent.lovesguide.com/burham_new.htm). Manhandling nearly 4
> cwt of bell on such an appalling evening was neither of us idea of
> fun, but we were the only two available at short notice!
>
> Happy days!
>
> Richard
>
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> Yahoo! Groups Links
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