[Bell Historians] Re: Vandalls?

Thu Apr 11 00:05:13 BST 2019

"Ties" I take to be either the wooden braces fitted between the wheels and the headstocks. Usually there were four, one pair to each top half of the wheel and one pair to the lower half. I've also come across a third pair, fastened on to the meeting spokes of the wheel. 
They were replaced by metal braces in the 19th century and these in turn by to-day's profiled wheel plates Taylor / G&J), or angle iron braces.
Alternatively they could indeed be stays fitted beside and strapped to the wheels, the sliders functioning in reverse to normal practice. They were usually fitted where things were a bit tight. Normally found on much older installations.
DLC   
----Original message----
>From : bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com
Date : 10/04/2019 - 13:56 (GMTDT)
To : bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com
Subject : [Bell Historians] Re: Vandalls?

So leaving aside the word 'vandalls' or whatever it might be, can anyone enlighten me about the purpose of fitting stays to the wheels and why they would have been needed. Are we talking about strengthening ties between the headstock and the wheel? Were they a normal feature of bellhanging at this time? Would they have been more necessary on quarter or half wheels, for instance?
Yours, in ignorance
Gareth
PS I notice, incidentally, that there is another payment of viij d in the same year for 'stayes for the fowrth bell'. There is also other work to the triple and great bells, all of which the parish paid for.
PPS Just on the Roman v Arabic point, it is 1630 that m
arks the transition in the GSM churchwarden accounts (at least the published version, which I'm sure will be accurate on that point). 1630 all the main entries are Roman numerals. 1631 they are all Arabic.

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