[Bell Historians] McShane bells in the British Isles

[Peter Dyson]

Re: McShane
The Heaton Norris (Stockport) RC church is quite near to me. The church is
still there, but I understand from Jon Greenhough that the current bell is
by Taylor, dated 1963.

Pete Dyson

On Sat, 26 Nov 2022 at 22:15, Carl S Zimmerman <csz_stl at swbell.net> wrote:

> One of the major bellfoundries in America in the late 19th and early 20th
> centuries was that of Henry McShane, in Baltimore, Maryland.  The McShane
> name became so widely associated with bells that it was retained as part of
> the company name when no members of the McShane family were still
> associated with the foundry, and it survives today in the McShane Bell
> Company (no longer a foundry) of Saint Louis, Missouri.
>
> The McShane name has been known in the UK for almost a century, following
> the gift of a 13-bell chime by Irish-American lumber and shipping magnate
> Robert Dollar to his home church in Falkirk, Scotland, in 1926.  This set
> of bells is not yet recorded in Dove, but probably will be when the chimes
> of Scotland are added to that database.  The sole McShane entry in Dove at
> present is not in the UK at all--it is the 1890 chime of 10 bells in
> Exeter, Ontario, which contains six bells hung for change ringing.
>
> However, a project to digitize a typewritten index to the handwritten
> McShane bell records has led to the discovery that the McShane Bell Foundry
> shipped five bells to the British Isles at various times.  Four of those
> went to Ireland, perhaps because the buyers wanted to deal with an
> Irish-born bellfounder.  The five are as follows (using current country
> names and avoirdupois weights):
>
> 21 Oct 1881 - Rev. B. O'Hagan, St. Coleman's Church, Gilford, Northern
> Ireland - 3700#
> 19 Aug 1884 - Rev. P. Lowry, Achonry, co.Sligo, Ireland - 175#
> 28 Sep 1885 - St. Mary's Church, Heaton Norris, (Stockport area?), England
> - 450#
> 9 Jan 1888 - St. John's Church, Gilford, Northern Ireland - 1500#
> 9 Mar 1896 - St. Malachy's Church, Castlewellan, Northern Ireland - 3400#
>
> I have not attempted to discover whether any of these bells survive,
> thinking that other subscribers to this list would be far better equipped
> to do so than I am.  But I would of course be interested to learn more
> about them.  The weights given are pattern weights, not finished weights,
> which might appear stamped on top of the shoulder of a bell.
>
> Carl Scott Zimmerman, Campanologist
> Saint Louis, Missouri, USA -
>  - 19th c. home of at least 37 bell founders or resellers
> Tel. +1(314)821-8437
> Webmaster for www.TowerBells.org
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>  * Recreation: handbells
>  * Mission: church bells
> Webmaster for www.TSCChapter134.org
> Treasurer, World Carillon Federation
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