[Bell Historians] Charlton Adam, Somerset

[Bickerton, Roderic K (SELEX) (UK)]

What really scares me is some of the "work" on early king post frames
using top to bottom tie rods over loading everything without doing
anything with the curved angled braces.
The result is an ugly mass of very visible steel and a frame which
rapidly builds up movement again as the ancient timber yield to the
pressures applied by the new steel.
The angled braces are made to resist the horizontal part of the force
and must be brought into use if parallelogram distortion os to be
avoided. All that is needed is a tie rod on the horizontal brace near
the king post pulling it down and pre loading its joints.
That way even a tall headless or short head frame can be quite stable.

There is a good example at Godmanham stabilised by Mallerby more than
100 years ago. The tie rods are so neatly done they are easily missed.
The frame looks as if chiming the bells would cause it to swing about
dangerously. It barely moves a couple of mm with all 3 being rung full
circle.
	

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