[Bell Historians] Moseley St Mary - Steel Bells

Mon Jan 9 11:54:13 GMT 2012

>From New Zealand I would like to make the following points

Sowerby bells at Beamish Museum in Durham -  last time I asked to see them I was informed that they were not available as they were in a building that was totally closed due to asbestos.
The bells were offered to Beamish from a scrapyard and Beamish were invited to collect the five bells. At collection three bells were found inside the largest three bells.

Willington in County Durham are perfectly ringable after major work done by David Town and since that work have been pealed twice.

Someone mentioned Stainland bells - I understood that they were in the open at a deer park somewhere although not confirmed.

Now lets come to the point. All the churches that ever had steel bells purchased them as part of the act of divine worship and wether individual ringers think that steel bells are disgusting  ( or not ) is not relevant.

So those Churches purchased steel bells that were cheaper than the standard bell metal equivalent may have regretted their decision.  Cambridge in New Zealand sent the first six that were delivered back to England to be exchanged for six in tune !!

Also as I understand it a lot of steel bell installations were squeezed into towers that were probably unsuited to the weight of bells, but that was probably a selling point as Churches were buying bigger bells for less money. 

So lets not knock steel bells too much - If I asked  for a list of out of tune bells from all over the world lots of ringers would nominate certain towers but as most ringers have probably not rung on steel bells they would mostly be standard bell metal.
The unfortunate thing is that for those towers nominated it would cause a lot of offence to those that rang them and the parishioners

regards Howard E. J. Smith - Newcastle Cathedral 

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Rivet <peter at Ufumxa9hb9Yrio1BiZdV-njpnB2QxYWM2tqoB9t6UMadJRjYS4sNzTjD5YfBkel46q5cqiPsuYSvYG9Q.yahoo.invalid>
To: bellhistorians <bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sun, 8 Jan 2012 8:06
Subject: RE: [Bell Historians] Moseley St Mary - Steel Bells

I agree that we ought to retain a ringable set of steel bells somewhere so that future generations know what they sound like.  Whether these are appropriate for the job I am not so sure.  I remember ringing at Moseley one Sunday evening immediately after a visiting band had finished a quarter peal.  One of the ringers said that she had burst out laughing after hearing them in rounds!

Peter Rivet

-----Original Message-----
From:   bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com [mailto:bellhistorians at NnzK5CkcLPBZcMJnKKBFXveVphPtXyP5rNzs9wDG2zJuEnYj9R2rMG9cmJwZ3op53M-Qh0AWrP-r601WjWUvQE0WKCxsWcY.yahoo.invalidom]On   Behalf Of Richard Offen
Sent: 07 January 2012   18:10
To: bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re:   [Bell Historians] Moseley St Mary - Steel Bells

Surely a home where the bells cannot actually be rung would be the best   one for all concerned!!!

R

Sent from Richard Offen's iPhone

On 07/01/2012, at 6:20 PM, richard at GDoKqXQwvbvljEkBqJGPYWxE6nk0BxCVx4GaXyXMfH7XFp8TBkNify6OGrlYIjQr-_kQ8dI_L3jinDB87Q.yahoo.invalid   wrote:

The honest answer is that no-one knows yet.  Their fate will be     decided next week. They will not be destroyed, but there are alternatives,     all of which meet the requirements of the faculty.

The Trustees have worked extremely hard over a period of more than two     years to find a home for them. Many leads have proved fruitless. The homes     that are contenders are not locations where they can be actually rung.

Needless to say there are many who would like to see them retained. As     usual they always sound better the further you are from them - none of the     local ringers or parishioners share this desire. In this particular case,     owing to the fact that they are rust buckets, even the CBC feel there is no     merit in their retention. And as most will know only 7 are ringable and     those are declining fast.

Richard

Sent from my iPhone

On 7 Jan 2012, at 09:49, "George Dawson" <george at p89a_kaZpodraKvW760g57JK5em_d8kcLwhXLX6lBNnMn7jyIAv5rXCIM88VOmXX3BssAMsC5r_8N_WFFroainV_wCc.yahoo.invalid>     wrote:

Richard       might like to enlighten  us all as to the fate of the steel       bells??

George

>----- ------- Original Message ------- -----
>From:       richard at GDoKqXQwvbvljEkBqJGPYWxE6nk0BxCVx4GaXyXMfH7XFp8TBkNify6OGrlYIjQr-_kQ8dI_L3jinDB87Q.yahoo.invalid
>To:       Bell Historians
><bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com>,
>       Change Ringers <change-ringers at Wdt8DCXSSKFBpZfAqmWpePSC2Og9i9r-ZrRUMcas5l8EuDhKt7AWIAieJfooWObT1mxKXg4iALO84xc7EernmynrnY9ibtY.yahoo.invalid>
>Sent:       Fri, 6 Jan 2012 22:35:44
>
>The last opportunity to ring the       steel bells at
>Moseley is on January 15th from 12:00 -14:00       prior
>to their removal the following day. There will be a
>£3       charge per person.
>
>The bells will be replaced with a ring       of 10
>weighing 18 and a half hundredweight. Seven bells
>will       be cast to G&J profiles to match 3 bells
>rescued from Greenock.       All the work will be
>undertaken by       Taylor's.
>
>Richard
>
>Sent from my       iPhone

Mark Regan
22 Sebright Avenue
Worcester
WR5       2HH
07971 573688
01905 354339
01905 855253

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ringingworld.co.uk/pipermail/bell-historians/attachments/20120109/570f7c31/attachment.html>