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

[Chris Pickford]

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 talk21.com or 
(interchangeably) c.j.pickford.t21 at btinternet.com


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