[Bell Historians] Oxford

[Richard Offen]

> To return to the Oxford bell: Richard said something about Fred 
ringing it before it was rehung. Old age is creeping up on Richard as 
sure as it has on me. We were both (well, I was) at a lecture given by 
Fred in Tenterden when the great man showed "before" and "after" prints 
of Great Tom; and it was in a pretty derelict condition. What Fred said 
was that everyone wanted the bell rehung in time for the Coronation, 
except the then Christ Church Bursar, who would of course be paying the 
cheque. He relented on one condition, "That when Great Tom is rehung, 
Sharpe will be the first one to ring the bell, and when Tom Tower 
collapses, the villain will perish with it!"    
> 

I was confined to barracks with chickenpox when Fred gave his lecture 
at Tenterden, so missed the whole thing!

R