Fw: Christopher Dalton

[Neil Skelton]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Neil Skelton 
To: Neil Skelton 
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 10:28 AM
Subject: Christopher Dalton


Much has already been said of Christopher and, I have to admit, a good deal of it has reduced me to tears of laughter because it describes so well the Christopher many of us knew and whose company we enjoyed.

One of my earliest recollections of him was at a Devon three-bell tower where he tapped plain hunt on the glass shades of a three-light chandelier in the nave. Bing Bong Crash!  From memory a spare shade was found in the vestry.

We were colleagues for 14 years at what was then the Redundant Churches Fund and those were good days too.
Interspersed with the work of the Fund's churches we occasionally looked at bells in working parish churches too.
At Charfield, Glos the single bell is hung in a turret on the nave roof with no access to the trapdoor some 35 feet from the ground. Not to be daunted, Christopher, having two double-extension ladders on his car roof rack, lashed the narrower section of one to the top half of the other. Together we got this gimcrack arrangement of three ladder sections in position but there was an enormous amount of whip at the half-way point. I implored Christopher not to go up but we both did only after I had insisted on using the remaining ladder section as a prop. Getting up was one thing but the descent was quite another. The was by no means an isolated occasion when our death - defying antics would have given the H&SE a corporate apoplexy!

At Chetnole, Dorset, I let the one bell of the three without a stay go over the balance. Having restored the rope, Christopher took it from me saying, "Let me show you how to ring it." Once up he promptly let it go over and so we were back where we started. The fact that this was the first toer after lunch might have had something to do with it.

Travelling by train from Manchester to Blackburn, we rushed onto the station concourse as our train was about to leave. I suggested to Christopher that we should check the platform but he said that the Blackburn train always went from the same one and further, he didn't make that sort of mistake, so I followed and we boarded the train. It was one of those where you paid the conductor who, on being asked for two singles to Blackburn paused and said, "Blackburn sir? The one and only stop is Rochdale." At which Christpher turned to me and forbade me to utter a word.

This last experience was to stick in our minds as not long after and when Dorset Bells and Belfries was at its embryo stage, Christopoher faxed me a 'proofed' copy of the Bere Regis entry with a note, "This has been proof-read four times and so I can assure you that you will not find a mistake! It seemed pointless to go through it but I did so with the proverbial fine-tooth comb. On reaching the end of the entry my eyes alighted on the date of visit. Yes, it was 31st February, 1966. I returned the fax with a note, "Was 1966 a triple leap year? That was the cause for amusement for a  number of years.

I could write many an amusing account of our working together but these might be better placed elsewhere, otherwise, this message would be so very much longer than it is.

Christopher taught me so much about churches, bells and much more but his appreciation of good ale has had a lasting affect and I often think of the hours of pleasure drinking real ale I  might have missed had I not known Christopher. On my first introduction to Brakspears (when it was Brakspears) Christopher made the usual faces as he sipped his pint, suggesting that it was not up to standard. He complained to which the publication responded, "No one has ever before complained about my ale." In his inimitable manner Christopher replied, "Well, there's a first time for everything." Reluctantly, the publican changed the barrel.

Neil Skelton

           
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