[Bell Historians] Steel bells

[David Cawley]

Indeed the present Moseley octave - or seven of them - used to hang in St Marie's Sheffield (now the RC Cathedral). They previously hung in a wooden tower in the Naylor Vickers foundry yard. An arrangement was made with St Marie's to hang them in that tower so that prospective customers could sample what they might get! Apparently vasrious bells were exchanged for new stock items over the years; there were subsequent difficulties over payment, and in 1873 Vickers Sons & Co were instructed to remove the bells but leave the frame. The latter was occupied by the present Mears octave, rehung in a new frame in the 1930's. It seems that there was something amiss with the front end of the steel octave and a replacement treble was installed at Moseley when Sir John Holder bought the bells and had them hung in place of the old ring of three (now 2,3,4 of six at nearby St Anne's). As they are at present the two trebles are virtually the same note. The third is markedly flat of its intended position. The back five are approximately 'in tune' if that is the expression, indeed the 7th is a fair sounding bell, and if anything was going to be preserved, say as a clock bell, that would be the best. The tenor was a foul sounding bell.  The 2nd is dated 1858 and seems to be the only bell left of the original eight from the NV foundry tower; the remainder are the usual mix of 1860/61. The CCC Bells Committee did discuss these bells some years ago and decided that they had no qualifications for being listed in the Birmingham Diocese Schedule of Bells for Preservation.

All credit to those who made these unusual bells ringable for a couple of decades, to the welcoming band of ringers, and all power to Richard and his team in their endeavours to give the church, possibly for the first time ever, a worthy ring of bells.

DLC

See my Christmass article in the RW 2000, "Colonel Tom and his Cast Steel Bells".

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Richard Grimmett 
  To: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 10:36 AM
  Subject: Re: [Bell Historians] Steel bells


    
  thanks George

  Looking at Moseley I see the bells were cast over quite a nunber of 
  years. I had thought they were all hung at St Marie's Sheffield prior 
  to going to Moseley. However the treble was cast in 1874 presumably for 
  Moseley (?). Was this a recasting (so to speak)?

  Richard


             
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