Rainhill St Bartholomew (was Re: Pen y Fai)

[GRBlundell at ...]

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 22:29:19 +0100
> From: "David Bryant" 

(writing about a bell transferred from Rainhill St Bart to Pen-y-fai)
> 
> [The bell was the 3rd of six from Rainhill, wasn't
it? What happened to the other five? Were they
scrapped?]
> 
> David

I asked on the Merseybells list if anyone knew what had happened to the bells, and I got 2 answers that conflict with each other and with David's belief.

Ernie Runciman tells me that
- the (whole?) ring was sold to E&S
- the back 4 were used in making Withycombe Raleigh up to 10

This conflicts with David's belief that the bell at Pen-y-Fai was the 3 from Rainhill, and the back 4 from Rainhill can't have been a straight installation to become the back 4 at Withycombe - rainhill were 13 cwt or so, while Withycombe are around 17 cwt.

Sam Austin emailed me to say

One was scrapped and the and some went to Australia

but I gather that following a discussion with Ern, Sam accepts that this is not well sourced information - it comes from Sam's dad, Graham, and some of you may know that both Graham and Sam have much more important issues on their mind at the moment due to ill health in the family.


So a little bit of digging in Merseyside seems only to have muddied the waters!

None the less, I hope this helps. As always, any misinterpretation of what I have been told is my fault and not that of the source of information.


Cheers


Giles Blundell
Liverpool