A CONTRIBUTION TO A NATIONAL
For
a few years, the Central Council has been considering whether to instigate a
project to set up a National Bell Register. This would serve a number of
purposes, not least how many bells there are in the country and available for
ringing, whether there are any bells by particularly ‘rare’ founders (although
this is partially covered by the ‘Listed Bells’ register held by the Council
for the Care of Churches). Various methods of holding and accessing this data
have been considered and a sample of a database was set up by John Baldwin from
Llandaff, using data from the
At
the Council meeting,
So
far I have identified 1082 conventional bells (of which 790 are hung for
ringing), 14 hemispherical bells and 25 tubular bells. Our oldest bell with a
date cast on it is 1508, although there are undated bells which are older. I
have identified 39 different founders, but the largest contributions to our
heritage were:
Foundry |
Number |
Percentage of total |
Taylor/Loughborough |
498 |
44% |
Rudhall |
167 |
15% |
Whitechapel
& predecessors |
150 |
13% |
Warner |
50 |
4% |
Gillett
& Johnston |
37 |
3% |
Other
miscellaneous |
137 |
13% |
Unknown
at the present time |
82 |
8% |
An analysis by half-century of when our current bells were
cast shows a peak of activity between 1850 and 1950;
The data has been compiled from many
different sources, including: my own inspections as DAC Bells Consultant, the
work by a former Master of the Guild (J W Clarke) published by the Lancashire
and Cheshire Antiquarian Society (survey never completed), some surveys carried
out by the Branches in the 1970’s and the excellent website of the Wirral
Branch. At the moment I am concentrating my efforts to gather further data by
looking at the smaller church buildings within the Diocese. I would be grateful
for an invitation to see your bells, if I have not been already, to
further our knowledge.
Peter
Dyson
D A C – Bells Consultant
Tele :
01625 876394