[Bell Historians] Article on Preston by F H Cheetham

Sun Oct 6 21:48:02 BST 2024

The story about Frank Cheetham being arrested as a German spy is given in his Church Bells of Lancashire.  The church concerned was St Luke's Lowton, near Wigan, where the Rector was intensely suspicious of anyone trying to access the tower.  Cheetham did eventually get details of the two bells there from a sympathetic churchwarden, but he was never allowed to go up the tower himself.

Peter Rivet

-----Original Message-----
From: Bell-historians <bell-historians-bounces at lists.ringingworld.co.uk> On Behalf Of Dickon Love
Sent: 06 October 2024 12:12
To: 'Bell Historians' <bell-historians at lists.ringingworld.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [Bell Historians] Article on Preston by F H Cheetham

Hi Richard,

Is this what you are after? It has a picture of the manuscript.

https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/78-9-Cheetham.pdf

I know Frank Cheetham's son and must make a point of asking him whether he still has any of his father's notes. (I assume they would have been archived somewhere else by now.)

In looking for the attached I also came across this rather amusing article detailing the time when Frank was detained as a German Spy on his way to a tower inspection! It is a story I've never heard.

"ANTIQUARY DETAINED AS A GERMAN SPY. While on an antiquarian excursion in the Wigan district last week, Mr. F. H. Cheetham, of Southport. was detained as a German spy for two hours. Mr. Cheetham had obtained written permission to inspect some church bells at a certain place. On arrival at the church he was closely examined by the rector, who afterwards handed him over to the police. It was not till after he had walked with two policemen to a police office three miles distant and had seen the officer in charge that he was allowed to go. Mr. Cheetham had an Ordnance Survey map in his possession." (Lancashire Evening Post - Monday 31 August 1914)

Dickon Love
Bromley, Kent
07983 352279

-----Original Message-----
From: Bell-historians <bell-historians-bounces at lists.ringingworld.co.uk> On Behalf Of Richard Smith via Bell-historians
Sent: 04 October 2024 20:27
To: Bell Historians <bell-historians at lists.ringingworld.co.uk>
Cc: Richard Smith <richard at ex-parrot.com>
Subject: [Bell Historians] Article on Preston by F H Cheetham

I am trying to locate a newspaper article by F H Cheetham which Trollope refers to on several occasions in his unpublished manuscript on London ringing.  He variously describes it as an 'article on Preston bells in Preston newspaper', 'a contemporary MS printed in a local newspaper by F H Cheetham', and 'the orders for ringing at Preston' (this likely refers to the quoted manuscript rather than Cheetham's article).

Based on Trollope's quotes, the manuscript that Cheetham transcribed was evidently written in 1587 and included quite detailed instructions on the circumstances in which ringing was allowed, and how many bells were to be rung in each circumstances.  This would sounds like it would make very interesting reading, but Trollope's citations of it are frustratingly vague, and a search in the British Newspaper Archive fails to find anything.

Is anyone familiar with either Cheetham's article or the manuscript he transcribed?  I can't find anything in the relevant part of Cheetham's Church Bells of Lancashire (Trans Lancs & Ches Antiq Soc, vol 38, pp.87–95; or pp.395–403 in Alan Ellis's reproduction), nor in T Harrison Myres's 'Bells & Bell Lore: Church Bells of the Amounderness'.

RAS

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