[Bell Historians] Bell frame for sale (of no practical use)

Sun Mar 16 17:51:17 GMT 2008

Dear All,

I feel it is a shame that Andrew has burst into a "rant" about this project, when he obviously doesn't know the facts of the situation, particularly regarding the professional side of things.

To my knowledge, two firms were approached and quoted for this job, and we have been given the contract for the work, which will be completed this year. Various schemes were considered and the final scheme as settled upon for a number of good reasons, including heritage issues. Rev Dr Gordon Edwards has worked very hard on getting this project through, and has taken things as far as the Consitury Court.

Regarding the tenor bell. This bell is undersized in respect to the remaining bells, particularly the 4th of 5. The bell is badly cracked in the soundbow and waist and has totally lost its tone. The front 4 of the ring of 5 are 17th C and 15th C and are listed, therefore the retuning of the bells has been an issue. Having studied the tenor bell in great depth, we feel that if it is welded, it would be flat of the required note, meaning that the other four would need to be tuned down significantly to produce a well tuned peal. The DAC did not like this idea. Basically the PCC could fork out about £3k repairing a bell which might not be a suitable note and/or sound any good (Pretty important if it is to be the tenor of a proposed 6!)

Remodeling the ring was also considered, but dismissed by the DAC who would only approve minimal tuning of the other 4 bells.......

So the Ex Writtle tenor was brought on line - a fine sounding bell with near-true harmonics, and a better size than the original cracked bell - and (this is the best bit) it comes free! It's a no brainer really!

I can confirm that all six will fit on one level with space to spare (sadly not quite enough for 8!). The tower is a large sturdy structure which has been assesed by a competant structural engineer.

The old frame is to be recorded and dismantled. It will be stored in the Churchyard (under plastic sheets) until a decision as to its future has been decided.

I feel that it is a great shame that the Wootton branch are not 100% behind this scheme. It is a good one that has been well thought through (over a period of about 5 years). The Horton PCC have gone the extra mile to take on the heritage bodies head to head, and have come out on top. Its a shame that other PCC's don't have the guts to follow things through just as Horton have. Currently the likes of EH and SPAB are trying to get away with keeping rubbish - I wonder if Dr Edwards would like to move to Great Malvern when he retires!

Ho Hum (from an Cyber Cafe in Dublin)

MRTH (Who learned on a hard going 20cwt peal of six!)

-----Original Message-----

From: Andrew Bull 

To: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com

Sent: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 5:01 pm

Subject: RE: [Bell Historians] Bell frame for sale (of no practical use)

So will these “quite a few people” be prepared to teach the locals to ring on an 18 cwt ring of six, or are they just after somewhere more interesting for their peals and quarters? Perhaps, then, the best plan would be to weld the existing tenor (I doubt if the Reverend Doctor has considered this) and leave them as a five?

I suspect that the ex-Writtle tenor, which I now find was recast by Mears & Stainbank in 1917, will be somewhat larger in diameter than the existing Horton tenor, which is 44 ½ inches according to Bliss & Sharp. No doubt someone will be able to shoehorn a heavy six into the tower, but so far as I am aware no professional hanger or founder has inspected the tower or analyzed the bells, so I would suspect that the feasibility of the proposed project is for the moment an matter of pure speculation.

Andrew Bull

From: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com [mailto:bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of sweb1

Sent: 16 March 2008 16:38

To: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Bell Historians] Bell frame for sale (of no practical use)

Have spoken to quite a few people about this, and the general 

consensus is that they don't want ANOTHER 10cwt 6. There's far too 

many of them around as it is, why have another? I count 7 c10 cwt in 

the branch, what excuse is there for another? Why not have an easy 

going heavier ring (Yate are very tough)...

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