[Bell Historians] Clock Chime Queries

[Chris Pickford]

I've looked into GLUSBURN INSTITUTE and it proves to be quite an interesting
story. Not much use to Mike, though, as it looks as though there are only
two bells.

 

The clock was supplied by Potts of Leeds in 1911. It's mentioned in the book
by Michael Potts on Potts of Leeds (a really useful reference book that
helps to answer lots of queries on clock chimes). Using the British
Newspaper Archive I found a couple of references to the clock, but nothing
on the maker or mechanism let alone the bells.

 

I also checked the Taylor records but they don't seem to have supplied the
bells for this particular Potts clock - although there are plenty of others
in the years on either side

 

However, a query to Michael Potts produced the answer. For the Glusburn
clock, Potts used two secondhand bells - by Mears 1852. Without going into
too much detail, they originally belonged to a clock (with a three-bell
chime) at the school built by H.L. Pattinson in associated with his Chemical
Works at Felling, near Gateshead. The Whitechapel records (an entry I'd
previously noted) list three bells supplied to Cooke - and evidently for
Felling in in 1852. The clock at the school must have been altered in about
1911 and Potts bought the bells, using two at Glusburn and the other for a
clock at Stainland. 

 

So Glusburn Institute has a ding-dong chime on two bells by Mears, 1852,
weighing 4-3-3 and 10-2-11.

 

This solves several mysteries. Michael Potts wasn't completely sure where
the Felling bells had come from. Steve and Darlah Thomas - authors of a
splendid book on Cooke of York - didn't know what had happened to the clock
and bells from Felling. The "glue" holding the story together is the Cooke
catalogue (in my Turret Clocks publication) and the Whitechapel daybook
entry. Putting these together with the information supplied by Michael and
the account of the Felling Chemical Works in the book by Steve and Darlah
completed the story.

 

Chris Pickford

 

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