[Bell Historians] Request for info: women in bellfounding

[Neal Dodge]

Hi Scott,

Although not connected to carillons, and a lot earlier than the 20thC,
there's Alice Brend of the Norwich Brend foundry dynasty. Not sure of the
level of her involvement with bell founding but her name is attributed to
90 bells cast between 1589-1633 that are hung for change ringing along with
her husband William Brend. https://dove.cccbr.org.uk/bells.php?founder=465
When William died in 1634 he left his foundry to their son John but half of
the debts owed to him along with half of the bell metal was given to Alice.
Pages 32-37
https://www.whitingsociety.org.uk/old-ringing-books/lestrange-norfolk-01.pdf
<https://www.whitingsociety.org.uk/old-ringing-books/lestrange-norfolk-01.pdf>
Seemingly none of the other Brend family, before or after William, included
their wives names as part of their inscription on the bells they cast,
perhaps indicating a greater role for Alice in the business?
Attached is a drawing of the shield William & Alice cast onto their bells.

[image: image.png]


On Sat, 3 Apr 2021 at 11:06, Scott Allan Orr <orr.scott at gmail.com> 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
> _______________________________________________
> Bell-historians mailing list
> Bell-historians at lists.ringingworld.co.uk
> https://lists.ringingworld.co.uk/listinfo/bell-historians
>


-- 
Many Thanks
Neal Dodge
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