[Bell Historians] Godalming

[Ted Steele teds.bells@tesco.net [bellhistorians]]

I raised correspondence on the change-ringers e-list about the new bells 
at Godalming, following the front page article in this week's RW. It 
seems  that contrary to what is stated clearly in the inscriptions on 
the bells, they were not recast at all but are totally new metal. 
Perhaps more significantly the old bells still exist, which to my mind 
makes a nonsense of the claim that they were recast.

My concern really centres around historical accuracy and what a bell 
historian would make of such a situation when tracing the history of a 
peal of bells. Would not the inscriptions be (normally) regarded as 
definitive? The response to my query was that founders would rarely 
re-use the actual metal of the original bells when recasting; as the 
composition of the bronze would be unknown. If that is the case then it 
seems to undermine even more the notion that bells have been "recast" 
since it suggests that the retention of the old material was not even 
considered desirable and that there was no actual wish to maintain any 
semblance of a continuum from one bell to the next.

What do the historians think of this? Apparently there are other 
instances of the same thing and Imber is given as a direct parallel. Of 
course it is accepted that at times extra metal must be added and that 
if more than one bell is recast at the same time the metal will be 
mixed. Might it be sufficient to claim that a bell has been recast if 
the old inscriptions are reproduced? But then what of the old bell 
remains in existence?

Ted


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Posted by: Ted Steele <teds.bells at tesco.net>
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