[Bell Historians] Hatfield Yorkshire

[Ted Steele]

 From what was told me by someone who knew it from others who were (I 
think) involved, the last ringing was in c1956. It was thought, as also 
in the case of nearby Fishlake to have been due to mining subsidence but 
to the best of my knowledge in neither instance has this ever been shown 
to be correct. (If it was then the NCB would have been respobsible for 
repairs). It was related to me that the ringers involved got out of the 
tower in double quick time when bits of masonry began to fall, but I was 
given no further details. It is my opinion, no more, that the falling 
masonry was probably from pinnacles and/or window tracery and that the 
damage got repaired as part of general repairs to the tower which were 
made in later years, without this ever having led to the bells being 
declared safe to ring. The reason that they are now unringable arose 
somewhat later; I don't know exactly when. It is that a new heating 
system was installed that involves a large blower blasting hot air down 
through a grid into the church below the crossing. The ducting and other 
components of this take up the majority of the space in the former 
ringing room and several of the ropes fall on top of these large 
obstructions making ringing impossible. The bells are in fundamentally 
good condition and are regularly chimed from an Ellacombe apparatus. A 
survey a few years ago confirmed that the tower itself had minimal 
movement when the accesible bells were rung and that some basic 
restorative work could bring them back to good ringing order; this is 
however currently precluded by other priorities for church expenditure. 
A decision was made to spend a considerable amount on repairing the 
heating system as the much more costly option of replacing it was not 
feasible. This means that there is no chance of a restoration in the 
lifetime of the current heating sytem, which, as I can testify from a 
very recent visit, does at least make it possible to enjoy a coffee in a 
comfortably warm building. The attached pictures show the problem. I 
imagine that further surveys would be required to confirm the current 
safety of the tower ahead of any planned restoration. Concurrent with 
the survey referred to a similar one at Fishlake confirmed that the 
bells are quite properly considered unsafe to ring.

Ted



On 23/02/2023 22:05, oliver Lee via Bell-historians wrote:
>
> I was wondering if anyone might be able to shed some light on when the 
> bells here where last rung and exactly why they are unringable?, the 
> last peal was rung in 1950 and my 1976 copy of dove’s lists them as 
> being unringable due to “  mining subsidence” but there are listed as 
> ringable in the 1956 one so they must’ve been condemned in the 1960s 
> or early 1970s.
>
> Many thanks
>
> Oliver lee
>
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