UK Registered Charity Number: 1154107

Conservation by Re-use

Helping churches acquire surplus and/or redundant bells to be hung for

English-style full-circle bell-ringing.

Back Next


Our main operational difficulty was the total reliance on bell-founders and bell-hangers to provide bell tonal analysis information. What was needed was a cheap and simple method of analysing the sound of a bell without the need of “bothering” the trade. By mid 1995 this problem had been overcome; Recordings made on standard audio cassette tapes could be analysed by PC software with an accuracy of better than ±1%. A second development was the simulation of prospective augmentations by using PC Sound Blaster software to mix the sound of existing and proposed additional bells. This technology was used to good effect to simulate the sound of the ancient four bells at Immingham (average age nearly 500 years old) with the addition of two medieval bells from the pre-1995 Bishopstoke ring. Although by current standards the bells are not well in tune, the overall effect was of an interesting and not unpleasant sounding ancient ring of bells.


By the end of 1996 we had helped to place over 40 bells, many of which have been hung for traditional full-circle ringing. The following list is in chronological order:

1992:

Bicknoller, Somerset, (treble to augment to a ring of 5)

Gimingham, Norfolk, (treble and second to augment a ring of 3)

Griffith, NSW, Australia, (tenor for new ring of 6)

1993:

Buckland Dinham, Somerset, (2nd to augment to a ring of 8)

1994:

Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia, (5th ,6th and tenor of new ring of 8)

Worton, Wiltshire, (single chiming bell)

Griffith, NSW, Australia (5th for new ring of 6)

Tredington, Gloucestershire,  (treble to augment to a ring of 6)

Holford, Somerset, (treble to augment to a ring of 6)

1995:

Ghana, (single chiming bell)

Stoughton, Sussex, (treble & 2nd to augment to a ring of 5)

Priddy, Somerset, (treble & 2nd to augment to a ring of 5)

Immingham, Lincs., (treble & 2nd to augment to a ring of 6)

Tividale, Staffordshire, (single chiming bell)

Thompson Town, Jamaica,  (single chiming bell)