Symbols on 1718 bell at Clent (Worcs)

[Chris Pickford]

Can anyone help with this one?

I recently examined the bells at Clent, and found that on the third (by Joseph Smith of Edgbaston, 1718) H.B. Walters had missed a row of symbols in the first row of decoration below the inscription band.  Using the nearest available characters in MS Word, the symbols are something like:

f * :  f d :  8 ` :  e ` : 

Most are near matches, except the 8 which is like a pair of spectacles set diagonally (no MS symbol equivalent). Basically, these are pairs of symbols separated by colons.

I have uploaded a scanned copy of my rubbing on the "photos pages" of the Historians site, although (my first attempt) I bungled it and instead of starting a new album the picture appears alongside the recently posted photo of Tundtall bells. It's called "Clent rubbing" - and is actually two strips of paper in which the lower one should follow the top one end-to-end

Can anyone advise me on either the meaning of the individual symbols or the significance of the whole string?

Chris Pickford           
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