[Bell Historians] 'The Church Bells of England 1912' on Million Books Project

[Anne Willis]

.....
>There are also other titles from various archaeological and historical
societies that contain important papers and research about bells. One
>>of the best I have found from the point of the Canewdon bells is an
>article about and including the complete translation of the 1552 list
>of all church good for the churches of the Rochford hundred in Essex
>published in `Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society' of
>1863. (The `Essex Arch Trans iv' source used extensively by Deeds &
>Walters in Church Bells of Essex.)

>Brian Meldon


That's wonderful, but can I offer a word of caution.

The 1553 list for Wiltshire was transcribed by Walcott Mackenzie and
published in the journal of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History
Society (WAM)around 1860.  It was used by Walters in his 'Church Bells of
Wiltshire', (which was largely based on work by James Jerram).  The
transcribed survey credits my own tower of Holy Trinity, Bradford on Avon
with three bells, though other sources say five.  I went to the PRO at Kew,
got a copy of the original and found that it is contradictory; five bells in
the goods column, three in the bells column.  

I subsequently found that the original document was available on-line from
the PRO and bought a copy.  Comparison of the WAM article with the original
showed several mis-transcriptions both in names and in numbers of bells;
Inglesham for example was credited with six bells, but had only two.  It's
easy to see from the text how this could have happened.  There are also
comments in the original that are omitted in the published version; four
great bells for Atworth for example.

I hope that your transcriber has been more accurate, but my limited
experience has shown that if you can check with the original manuscript do
so.


Anne