[Bell Historians] Request for info: women in bellfounding

[Richard Smith]

Well outside your period, but there were women founders 
right back in the late mediæval period.  Johanna Hill and 
Johanna Sturdy were both Londer founders during Henry VI's 
reign.  They were respectively the widows of founders 
Richard Hill (d c1440) and John Sturdy (d c1458), and 
continued to cast bells themselves after their husband's 
death.  (They are sometimes assumed to be the same woman, 
but Caroline Barron's account of them in in /Medieval London 
Widows, 1300–1500/ seems to leave little doubt that they 
were separate people.)

A scan through the list of founders of Dove may help you.

Richard



Who obvious examples


Scott Allan Orr wrote:

> Hello all,
> 
> Prof Tiffany Ng (University of Michigan) and I are running a small project
> to document and promote early contributions of women to the carillon art
> (early being interpreted primarily as the first part of the 20th century,
> but also more broadly to include notable instances outside of this time
> frame). We welcome any information relevant to women who contributed to
> bellfounding and related activities, but especially with connections to
> firms or installations of carillons.
> 
> For example, we are already familiar with contributions of Gwendoline Taylor
> in Loughborough (although this requires more archive work to fully
> understand), Sidonie and Marie Causard in France (early 20th century), and a
> successor to a branch of the Hemony foundry being taken on for a short time
> by a woman relative of one of the brothers.
> 
> All my best,
> Scott
> 
> —
> SCOTT ALLAN ORR
> +44(0)7541 486816
> 
>