[Bell Historians] old bells

[George Dawson]

Some annotations below.

 

G

  

George Dawson wrote:

> The oldest existing (blank) bell is open to debate, but read Elphicks The
> Craft of the Bellfounder which suggests Hardham , Sussex treble may be a
> contender.

Your spreadsheet for Chichester dates this as c1050. How 
accurate should that be considered? Does it just mean it 
probably dates to some time in the 11th century? Or is a 
greater accuracy implied?
Both Elphick & Clouston tried to work to quite close estimates of age, but I
feel that to the nearest half century is as good as it gets.
Also, I would be interested if anyone has the time to answer 
a rather open-ended question, how does one goes about dating 
a blank bell that is this old? I doubt there are as many as 
20 British bells surviving from the 11th or 12th centuries, 
and none of them are dated, so comparision similar bells can 
only get you so far.
Elphick discusses the age of such bells & their design features. See
particularly paragraph 2 on page 16.


RAS



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