Re: [Bell Historians] Bell Pitches

[Dickon Love]

Kelvin:
>  Does anyone know how I can find out what the sounding pitches of Southwark
>  Cathedral bells might have been in the past?
>  I've looked at the Southwark Cathedral Bell-ringers' site and although
>  there's a lot of historical info, only bell weights are specified.

RCO: 
>  The only people who will have this information will be the Whitechapel Bell
>  Foundry, who tuned the bells in the 1960s. If they are willing to divulge
>  it, they will almost certainly charge you a search fee for extracting it.

This request came to me via the Southwark Cathedral Master too, and I understand that Kelvin is more interested in the sound of the 15th Century ring of bells rather than the specific nominals of the current set before they were tuned.  I think the simple answer is that we just don't know (and Whitechapel certainly won't know Kelvin), but I suspect, looking at the weights (and putting my interpretation on them) that they wouldn't have been in a similar key (or semitone lower) than the current set.

DrL