[Bell Historians] woburn 1/4's

[Richard Offen]

On 4 Nov 2013, at 8:39 am, Robert Lewis <editor at ringingworld.co.uk> wrote:
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> At 19:22 03/11/2013, Andrew wrote:
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>> This would seem a fair argument, but as is well-known in some quarters, the attitude of Whitechapel to genuine requests for information from their archives is in stark contrast to that of Taylors. However, having one inadvertently caused offence by opening that particular can of worms, I will make no further comment.
> 
> The bell founders are both privately owned companies and their archives are private property, which in some instances probably have commercial as well as historical value.  I think there is a tendency within some ringing circles to regard these records in some sense as 'public property' with access 'as of right' . Surely it is entirely up to the foundries how and when they decide to make their archive material available to people and I think they are perfectly at liberty to either refuse access or make a charge, especially if giving supervised access is going to incur costs to their business. 

I entirely agree with you Robert and can remember a time when the boot was on the other foot and Taylors were incredibly secretive about the information in their archives (refusing to reveal the weights of the trebles at Surfleet immediately springs to mind!), so it hasn't always been "good afternoon, how can we help you?" from that quarter!

R

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