McShane bells in the British Isles

[George Dawson]

The Falkirk bells are in Cloustons CB Stirlingshire.

In 2000 I visited McShanes & they were kind enough to let me see their
casting book from which I got the real weights  rather than the ‘official’
weights.

 

George

 

From: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com [mailto:bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Carl S Zimmerman
Sent: 23 November 2008 22:48
To: Bell Historians List
Subject: [Bell Historians] McShane bells in the British Isles

 

It has long been known that the McShane Bell Foundry (Baltimore, 
Maryland, USA) sent a chime of 13 bells to Falkirk, Scotland (1926). 
But very little has been reported about their exports elsewhere. (I 
thought that there had been a mention of one bell in England, perhaps 
on this list, but it's not to be found in the Archives.)

This past week I acquired a photocopy of McShane's [August] 1888 
catalogue, which runs to 120 pages, plus 30-page Supplement dated 
Nov.1889. Two-thirds of the catalogue is occupied with lists of 
places to which McShane bells have been sent, with the expressed 
intent of making it possibly for any potential purchaser (at least in 
the USA!) to visit a "nearby" place to hear one for himeself. The 
list of "foreign" places occupies only 1/3 of a page, but includes a 
few places which might be known to other subscribers of this list. A 
few testimonials are interspersed with the lists, and the Supplement 
is entirely occupied with testimonials.

Does anyone know whether McShane bells (all single, I presume) 
survive in the following places:

St.Anne's Church, Birmingham, England (Rev.J.Dowling)

St.Mary's Church, Heaton Norris, Stockport, England (Francis Reichart 
paid £20-10 for this bell, and remarked, "We had to build a proper 
Tower for it which is now finished, and the bell is so far a *perfect 
success*.) [* = italics]

St.Coleman's [sic] Church, Gilford, Ireland

Alexandria, Egypt (Rev.S.C.Ewing)

Wesleyan Chapel, Oracabessa, Jamaica

Meth.Episcc.Church, Bareilly, India

Church of the Sacred Heart, Mhow, India

The introduction to the Supplement mentions that another bell was 
shipped to Ireland, but unfortunately does not mention its 
destination. And of course the foundry continued to produce bells 
for a further six decades, about which I have as yet no information.

Carl

 

           
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