[Bell Historians] Deadrope Ringing

[Brian Meldon]

The location of the original pulley boxes at Canewdon is still discernable for all the bells here and amazingly I also have a detailed close up photo of a pulley box in place taken many years ago before it fell apart. A pulley wheel also survives.

Bells two to five  have conventionalstay, sliders and slider boxes or to be more accurate their rotted remains! The treble in the newer (1678) addition to the bell frame has a pendulum slider and the surviving stay for this bell shows considerable ware from this slider. 

Interestingly there are also the remains of what appears to be a mechanism for locking each of the bells in an up position.

I find our old bell frame a fascinating object and with the help of others I have been able to establish its various stages of modifications from it's original form in the 1420's with it's massive 30cwt swing chimed tenor to the lighter full circle ring in the 17th centaury.

Brian Meldon


--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "Chris Pickford" <c.j.pickford.t21 at ...> wrote:
>
> Briefly, the pulleys were positioned in the normal place - and salleys would have been needed for the short handstroke pull and for setting the bell. Sometimes such installations have fixed "rests" rather than moving sliders. Not so sure about the tail-end. On bells hung like this, change-ringing would be difficult - but full-circle call changes and "round ringing" were entirely feasible. In my naughtier tower grabbing days when we used to ring on threes still hung like this, we often used to tie a piece or cord round the wheel in the "normal" garter hole position to give a proper handstroke. But I have rung deadrope too
> 
> I can't immediately think of anything much in print on the subject of deadrope ringing. Moreover, past belfry investigators perhaps didn't take enough notice when recording old installations (now gone or modified) to indicate whether the ropes (and pulleys) were arranged like this or in what we now regard as "normal" ringing positions. I'm as guilty as anyone else! But my hunch is that quite a fair percentage of "rustic" installations - i.e. where bells were hung locally rather than by specialist bellhangers - may have been deadrope
> 
> Of course, what you know is what you ring. Local bands who just rang in their own village would have been quite content with bells hung like this - a familiar "feel" and "go". 
> 
> It is, though, an area on which a bit more research could usefully be done
> 
> CP
> 
> 
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Brian Meldon 
>   To: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com 
>   Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 12:17 PM
>   Subject: [Bell Historians] Deadrope Ringing
> 
> 
>     
>   Chris Pickford mentioned in his last post that the 12 o'clock garter holes at Canewdon were for `deadrope ringing'.
> 
>   This is the first time I have come across this 
>   term and I would like to know more information, like how the bells would have been rung, where pulleys would be positioned and the arrangement at the lower end of the rope. Several of the surviving bell rope invoices here as well as giving details of the weight or the length of the ropes also state that they had `woostead sallys'. So clearly a sally was still needed. 
> 
>   Brian Meldon
>