[Bell Historians] Re: Foundry records [was Woburn 1/4s]

[richard.offen at iinet.net.au]

Further to Chris's posting on 9th November, John Taylor & Co has now added a page to their web site giving detail of how their remarkable archive can be accessed:
  
 http://www.taylorbells.co.uk/web/?q=node/72 http://www.taylorbells.co.uk/web/?q=node/72
  
 For those who complained that Whitechapel made a charge for information from their archive, please note, Taylors, quite reasonably, are now making an initial enquiry fee of £25.
  
 Bell Foundry Collections Ltd, who now have the care of the JT & Co archives, are to be congratulated on the enormous amount of work that has been done to catalogue the vast collection of material and make it readily available.
  
 Conclusion: there is no such thing as a free lunch, not even for bell historians who seem to think it their right to access the archives of our foundries free of charge!
  
 
 Richard
 

---In bellhistorians@{{emailDomain}}, <aaj.buswell at ...> wrote:

 --- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com mailto:bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, Chris Pickford <c.j.pickford.t21 at ...> wrote:
 >
 > The question of access to bellfoundry records and charges for research
 > is naturally of interest to members of this list. However, as Robert
 > Lewis and others have already remined us, a) the material belongs to the
 > companies concerned, b) they may restrict or allow access as they see
 > fit and c) charging it is not unreasonable for any services provided.
 > Any access that we may have as ringers and bell historians is a
 > privilege - and certainly not a right.
 >
 > It is true that Taylors were at one time highly secretive about the sort
 > of information that has been made much more freely available in recent
 > times. This should be clear to all from the amount of material
 > generously contributed to the Dove NBR database. Now, there is a strong
 > desire and commitment at Loughborough to open up the historical material
 > for a broad range of future uses.
 >
 > Work is in progress to transfer the John Taylor Bellfoundry Museum and
 > the foundry archives into the ownership of a separate company, Bell
 > Foundry Collections Ltd (BFCL). This is a "not-for-profit" company,
 > separate from John Taylor Bellfounders Ltd, and it exists to protect the
 > heritage material associated with the bellfoundry. BFCL now runs the
 > Museum and looks after the archives. Since the formation of the Company
 > in 2012 the Board (of which I am a member) has been working hard to
 > catalogue the material, improve the care of the collections and develop
 > a range of access routes.
 >
 > More information on our plans for the collections and about means of
 > access will be available shortly when we officially publicise the
 > formation of BFCL and start promoting our new services. Of course, BFCL
 > will need to generate income to fund these activities and so there will
 > be charges.
 >
 > At present, the charge for answering enquiries for information from the
 > Taylor archives is £20 for an initial search plus 30p per photocpy or
 > scan supplied. But bear in mind that time is precious too, and being
 > largely run by volunteers the Museum will not have the resources to
 > handle a heavy workload of enquiries.
 >
 >
 > Chris Pickford
 > --
 > Chris Pickford 4 Walmsley Court, High Street, Kinver, DY7 6HG Tel: 01384
 > 878435 or (mobile) 07811 453525 E-mail: c.j.pickford at ... or
 > (interchangeably) c.j.pickford.t21 at ...
 >
 
 
 I may be able to give, for free, information on G&J bells as I have their Tuning Book records of fiche.
 
 AAJB

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