[Bell Historians] Petham, Kent

[Richard Offen]

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "Dickon Love" <dickon at ...> 
wrote:
>
> The inscriptions on these bells are all rather bland and generic 
which
> suggests that they were perhaps cast before they were destined for
> Petham. The old bells were destroyed by fire in 1922 and the new 
bells
> came along remarkably quickly!
>  
> I know a little about this place - it is where I was taught to ring,
> where I rang my first peal(s) and where my father was Rector. (I'd 
be
> interested in a copy of your recording Bill.)
>  
> DrL

I too know these bells extremely well, having spent many happy hours 
ringing peals and quarter peals on them - I even called Dickon's 
second peal on them!

They were indeed Whitechapel's first experimental `true-harmonic' 
ring which, like rings such as Brewood for Taylors, represent the 
firm's transition to what they and G & J always termed `Simpson' 
tuning.   The ring was not, however, as Dickon suggests, a stock peal 
sold on to Petham.   I say this because, even when I was at 
Whitechapel nearly forty years ago, the `Simpson' gauges 
corresponding to the diameters of Petham bells were 
labelled "P1", "P2', "P3", etc.

For all their tuning discrepancies, they are, as Bill says, a very 
pretty little ring with a lovely warm sound.

Richard