[Bell Historians] Canewdon John Waylett bell.

[Brian Meldon]

David Sloman and I spent this morning at the Essex Records office and
we have indeed found much material about the Canewdon Bells. Most
significant of these items so far are several documents from Thomas
Mears in regard to the 1791 4th bell that cost £21.9s. to recast the
old bell. There is even an entry in the 1791 log book for `seasoning
it with beer' for an additional £9. 19s. a considerable sum of money
for the time. Then again it would have held a lot of beer! 
Amazingly we also found a legal contract drawn up by John Waylett's
solicitors for our 1707 tenor that includes his signature, all very
professional and not at all what I have been lead to believe about the
way John Waylett conducted his business.
Many more visits will be required to the E.R.O. to fully list and
indeed properly read all these documents, we have only looked at about
half the material that is available, but it was an amazing experience
to see so much valuable source material. I think we are truly lucky to
find that much has survived.

On a sad note I am now off to the remembrance service for our Canewdon
bell project leader for the past 20 years and village historian Ken
Smith who sadly passed away last week. 

Brian Meldon