[Bell Historians] Re: Bell Ropes.

[Brian Meldon]

Thankfully there are very few of these non descriptive bills in the
Canewdon documents. Both the churchwarden's accounts and many, if not
all, the bills and receipts survive and payments are nearly all
itemised on one or the other or both. The only items missing are the
gifts to the church, but some of these are mentioned in the charity
accounts. Unfortunately one item that is missing is any paperwork for
the 1678 Hodson treble. The surviving documents just do not go back
that far. 
It is written in earlier accounts that this was a gift from the then
incumbent Rev. Edward Webster. He was the Vicar at Canewdon from 1670
to 1681 and his name is cast on the bell. He left Canewdon following
his marriage to a near relative of Dr. Fleetwood, the Bishop of
Worcester who presented him with the parish of St. Mary, in Newington
near Southwark. Because of the lack of any documentary evidence it is
not known if this bell was new or a re-casting of an older bell. It is
located in its own extension to the main (in part) 1420's bell frame
and if it was a new bell this extension of the frame could also date
from 1678. 
Brian Meldon

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "Chris Pickford"
<c.j.pickford.t21 at ...> wrote:
>
> Also, don't forget the many (and often frustrating) "paid Smith" /
"Pd Brown's bill" / "To ye carpenter" entries that tell us very
little, although sometimes it's possible to make sense of these. I've
certainly found it possible to keep track of who had clock maintenance
contracts over fairly long periods in this way
> 
> Chris
>