Wendelspanswick
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I'm a bell ringer in our village church which dates to around 1520 and the 6 bells have become increasingly hard to ring to the point where we are unable to teach new ringers on them.
The parish kindly stumped up the £50,000 required for Taylors to remove the bells, refurbish them and have them rehung on steel headstocks and modern bearings. If the parish supplied the labour to assist the bell hanger they would reduce the cost by about £4000 so I volunteered.
Last week me and another ringer removed all the stays, sliders, ropes, wheels, pulley blocks and uncovered the trap doors. First problem was the addition of an organ loft below the ringing chamber which meant the bells would have to be lowered from the bell chamber into the ringing chamber then shifted sideways by 8' and finally lowered to the floor.
That's the view from the ground floor and you can just see the underside of the 3rd bell.
On Monday the bell hanger arrived from Taylor's and we set about chiselling grooves into the wall above the bells to slot in metal support brackets, each pair of brackets held 2 9"x3" timbers spanning the tower, 2 pairs of timbers went right across the tower with another 2 timbers across the middle to form a H.
These were then used to attach chain hoists onto.
All 6 bells in situ.
This morning we hoisted the 3rd bell up to lift the bearing holders of the frame and lowered it down, we swapped it onto another chain hoist in the ringing chamber so the bell was suspended by both hoists and then slacked off the top hoist to shift it across the room to the other hatch.
From lifting the bell to getting it on the vestry floor was 15 minutes.
The treble, two and fourth bell followed in quick succession, multiple hoists were used to lift the bells off the frame and manouvered over the hatch.
The 5th and tenor bells proved interesting, the space between the beams was 37" and the width of the 5th was 39" and the tenor 42".
This meant the bells had to be lifted out of the frame, supported underneath on bearers, the headstocks taken off and the bells rotated through 90° as they are wider than they are tall, not an easy feat when you realise that the tenor weighs 18cwt or roughly 900kg!
The tenor with the obligatory mug for scale!
And on it's way down.
Four of us had all 6 bells down by 3.30pm ready to be carted out to the lorry that's due tomorrow.
The bells will go off to have the old headstock holes welded up, new cast headstocks fitted and new bearing holders, new wheels, stays, clappers etc. Unfortunately as the bells are listed (the oldest bell dates from 1420) we can't have them retuned but they will definitely be easier to ring.
We think the bells will be ready to go back in in October, when we will have to repeat the process in reverse order.
Hopefully ready to ring for Armistice Day in November to commerate 100 years since the end of the 1st World War.
If you fancy learning to ring, they are hoping to recruit 1400 new ringers this year in memory of the ringers killed in the war.
https://a100.cccbr.org.uk/?rf=32
The parish kindly stumped up the £50,000 required for Taylors to remove the bells, refurbish them and have them rehung on steel headstocks and modern bearings. If the parish supplied the labour to assist the bell hanger they would reduce the cost by about £4000 so I volunteered.
Last week me and another ringer removed all the stays, sliders, ropes, wheels, pulley blocks and uncovered the trap doors. First problem was the addition of an organ loft below the ringing chamber which meant the bells would have to be lowered from the bell chamber into the ringing chamber then shifted sideways by 8' and finally lowered to the floor.
That's the view from the ground floor and you can just see the underside of the 3rd bell.
On Monday the bell hanger arrived from Taylor's and we set about chiselling grooves into the wall above the bells to slot in metal support brackets, each pair of brackets held 2 9"x3" timbers spanning the tower, 2 pairs of timbers went right across the tower with another 2 timbers across the middle to form a H.
These were then used to attach chain hoists onto.
All 6 bells in situ.
This morning we hoisted the 3rd bell up to lift the bearing holders of the frame and lowered it down, we swapped it onto another chain hoist in the ringing chamber so the bell was suspended by both hoists and then slacked off the top hoist to shift it across the room to the other hatch.
From lifting the bell to getting it on the vestry floor was 15 minutes.
The treble, two and fourth bell followed in quick succession, multiple hoists were used to lift the bells off the frame and manouvered over the hatch.
The 5th and tenor bells proved interesting, the space between the beams was 37" and the width of the 5th was 39" and the tenor 42".
This meant the bells had to be lifted out of the frame, supported underneath on bearers, the headstocks taken off and the bells rotated through 90° as they are wider than they are tall, not an easy feat when you realise that the tenor weighs 18cwt or roughly 900kg!
The tenor with the obligatory mug for scale!
And on it's way down.
Four of us had all 6 bells down by 3.30pm ready to be carted out to the lorry that's due tomorrow.
The bells will go off to have the old headstock holes welded up, new cast headstocks fitted and new bearing holders, new wheels, stays, clappers etc. Unfortunately as the bells are listed (the oldest bell dates from 1420) we can't have them retuned but they will definitely be easier to ring.
We think the bells will be ready to go back in in October, when we will have to repeat the process in reverse order.
Hopefully ready to ring for Armistice Day in November to commerate 100 years since the end of the 1st World War.
If you fancy learning to ring, they are hoping to recruit 1400 new ringers this year in memory of the ringers killed in the war.
https://a100.cccbr.org.uk/?rf=32
