[Bell Historians] Re: [nabbers] 3 bell restoration

[David Cawley]

And, of course, the restoration (i.e. recovery of the iron 6-bell JT H-frame, fittings and rehanging the four bells) at Alexton, Leicestershire, last year was part of the Order in Council which empowered the Trust to recover all items which had been removed without Faculty since regular worship at the church ceased. In the bells case it had meant a 10-year alienation in a remote barn in the countryside, along with the frame and fittings. They were in a bit of a state and Nicholas Meadwell carried out an excellent restoration when we had revocered them.

DLC 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Neil Skelton 
  To: nabbers at yahoogroups.com 
  Cc: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 1:30 PM
  Subject: [Bell Historians] Re: [nabbers] 3 bell restoration



  What Colin did not explain is that the church at Stirchley is redundant and maintained by The Churches Conservation Trust. Now before all on this list start thinking that the Trust has begun restoring bells in its churches, I should explain that this church was originally destined to be maintained and used by Telford & Wrekin Council. Having accepted the building, the Council decided not to proceed with the its proposed use. However, it agreed to fund the repairs it would have carried out to the church once it had vested in the Trust. The original repair programme included the bells.

  I hope that this makes clear the unusual situation in this case and why the Trust will not be restoring to full-circle ringing all of the bells currently unringable in its churches.

  Neil Skelton. 


    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Colin Turner 
    To: nabbers at yahoogroups.com 
    Cc: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com 
    Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 9:46 AM
    Subject: [nabbers] 3 bell restoration



    I recently had the pleasure of ringing on the restored three bells at Stirchley, Shropshire. The work here was carried out by Matthew Higby et al, and rather unusually resulted in the bells being reinstated for full circle ringing. The last time I heard of this being done was at Downhead, Somerset, where the work was carried out by, er Matthew Higby.

    This is a most refreshing change, as nowadays most "restorations" of lesser numbers involve hanging the bells dead or fitting them with levers. I appreciate the additional cost involved in a complete rehang, but often wonder that after an initial burst of enthusiasm following conversion to chiming, how many towers with three lever chimed bells actually use all three bells each week? I've not heard of many active chiming bands, so my guess is that in most places a single bell is used briefly before the service. So what has been achieved? In a lot of cases nothing, a single bell that was chimed anyway, is still heard once a week. 

    Does anybody have any thoughts - or hopefully evidence to counter my musings?


    Colin 

        


              
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