[Bell Historians] Re: Levels of Bell Production

[David Willis]

Your research is very interesting Richard.  It's a sad fact that many ringers are
unaware of our crown jewels of the NBRs.
 
Do you think it useful to consider the number of bells now being welded instead
of recast as this technology represents a permanent loss to our 2 bellfounders ?
Not sure of the year after which this may have been a factor.
 
In the case of Caversham (Reading) the 8 bells went to Taylors in 1973 and 3
were found to be cracked. Today they might well have been welded but the ring
was remodeled with recast bells at reduced weight.
 
What do we think is the effect of the second hand market for bells.
On one hand the recipient tower spends less than on a new bell but may
create a ring of 6 from a 4 or 5. The donor tower however has no metal for a recast
so has to finance a new bell which is also the case where unuseable bells have to
bell preserved hung dead.
 
David
 
 
 
Chris Pickford wrote:

> Probably a tendency in recent years for there to be more 
> bells numerically but smaller ones - so an apparent 
> increase in activity may in fact mask a decline (or the 
> decline is more serious than it appears)

I would have expected this too, but since 1960 the surviving 
output (as listed in the pNBR) seems to be pretty constant 
at around 25 tons/year. See this graph:

http://ex-parrot. com/~richard/ pnbr/surviving- modern-tonnage- by-year.png

RAS




                 
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