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

Sun Mar 16 19:01:14 GMT 2008

Thank you, Matthew, for giving us some definitive information  extremely
useful, and with your permission, Matthew, I will pass your message on to
the Wotton Branch officers. I certainly didnt know the facts, and nor did
any of the Branch Officers, despite the fact that they had initially been
approached by the church authorities. I have no personal involvement in the
project, other that natural interest; my comments reflected the exasperation
expressed by Branch officers who were doing their best to help at Horton.

I was relieved to discover that the Writtle tenor had been recast in 1916,
and Im even more pleased to hear from Matthew that it is a bell of good
tone and tuning. Even more good news is that the tower has been assessed as
suitable for such a ring, and that they can go in on one level.

Im sure that when the communication issues between the Horton Church
authorities and the Wotton Branch officers are resolved, that the Wotton
Branch will support the Horton project wholeheartedly, as it has done in
other restorations within the Branch, e.g. North Nibley.

I still cant help but have reservations about the size of the restored
ring, and I would beg to point out that Chilcompton have long had a rather
useful local band!

Thanks again, Matthew, for injecting some hard facts into this discussion.

Andrew Bull

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From: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com [mailto:bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of matthewhigby at nLxSoQHlYaYoFEbHFRBn-nTRkn8H2QwaiTaJoKTdFEPcqNbfCv1YgABIBE5ZhmXUpRFs9-mhR__j5hueKyI.yahoo.invalid
Sent: 16 March 2008 17:51
To: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Bell Historians] Bell frame for sale (of no practical use)

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 <a_m_bull at j4I_Sy2-8FeIDUjUnG-W7sjeHDJdi87qawb5VdftZ0LxxdFxu1bcfTJ-OOya449yA3imIdXyxpqwDGle2DYh.yahoo.invalid>
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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