[Bell Historians] Weymouth Bell

[David Bryant]

“What do list members think of keeping bells in museums when they remain 
fit for use (which I am not saying that this one is)?”

Provided the bells are properly looked after, I’ve nothing against it – they
form a tiny proportion of the total number of bells in existence, and it
brings them to the public notice. In the museum at Exeter they had a good
display on bellfounding, the centrepiece of which was the cracked medieveal
4th from Halse, which was cast in Exeter. The museum is currently being
refurbished, so I don’t know whether the display will stay.

I do object to examples such as that at Shaftesbury, where two bells, the
sole survivors of the former ring of six at Holy Trinity, Shaftesbury, stand
(or did when I saw them) forlornly in the yard outside the museum, separated
only by a low wall from the outside world – it wouldn’t be difficult to
steal them if anyone wanted to. They are extremely green and corroded, and
from the rust marks visible in their crowns (the canons are off) it appears
that the staple roots remain and might well already have cracked the bells.

David 


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