[Bell Historians] Deadrope Ringing

[Brian Meldon]

Unfortunately the top section of the hand stroke side of the 3rd wheel is missing, although it is clear from what remains that it was a full wheel and that this part has either perished or been broken. This section has been missing for a very long time as it is not present in any photos that I have. It does however retain the section between the two top spokes including the garter hole.
Apart from that I can see no other marks on the wheels in the normal garter hole position on any of the photos I have. But again I will have a good look this evening. 
There is however a piece of rope tied around the wheel of the 4th bell in the approximate position of the normal garter hole in exactly the way Chris Pickford described he did in his `naughtier tower grabbing days'. It is however clearly a very old fitting and looked `old' in the 1980's.  I had previously assumed that this was used for swing chiming this bell in the 1920's and  there are indeed payments in the records for chiming one bell around this time. 

The dead rope ringing may partly explain the fact that stays were broken at an alarming rate in Canewdon, for example in a six month period in 1792/1793 they managed to break nine of them! In some of the paper work they make a differentiation between the long and short stays, the stay on the treble with the pendulum slider being shorter than those on the others. Three stays survive complete, one has clearly perished and another looks like it has possibly been broken but this could have perished a well.

In 1988 Ranald Clouston carried out a survey of the bells and fittings here at Canewdon and in it he states: 

`The timber wheels of c1800 unusually have 12 o'clock garter holes
..'

Brian Meldon