It's nice to be appreciated!

After all our hard work in the tower at Strensham over the last 2½ years, it was wonderful to see this in the service sheet for the Carol Service on 15th December.

Happy Christmas!

We rang for the Christmas Service today which was the target we were hoping to reach.

If you haven't see the video on the last post, then do so before looking at this video which was taken before the project started.

What a difference!

Over the next few weeks, we will work our way through the snagging list. There's nothing too large, just some tweaking and tidying up, but it all needs doing to make the bells as good as possible.

Trying the bells out!

Last night 22 people gathered by invitation at Strensham to try out the new ring of eight bells.

This included David Kelly of the Keltek Trust from whom the bells were obtained, and Matthew Higby who not only supervised the job, but did much of the offsite work.

The overall result is excellent!

Here is a short clip of the bells ringing.

The try-out highlighted a few more minor jobs to do, mainly with the internal acoustics and the clapper timings. These will be looked at over the next few months, but for the moment we can rest assured that Strensham now has a magnificent ring of bells!

All eight bells ringable!

With a bit of help today from two professional bell hangers (actually lots of help), we got the last two bells finished.

Here is the 3rd, complete with rope, stay and pulley.

There were only 5 of us up the tower, so we could only ring the back five.
(Apologies for the rather uninteresting picture - I can't ring and take video at the same time!)

What a sound!

Very close now!

Last night's efforts were such that the 3rd bell is now hanging properly on its bearings, and the lifting gear has been removed. The bed plates just need a couple more screws in them before the bell can be swing up.

 Here is the 3rd bell in situ.

This is the view across to bells 5 and 6. It's looking much more like a belfry now!

There's very little bell work to do now, just put the pulleys, stays, and sliders on the 2nd and 3rd.

The try-out won't be too far in the future.....

....but there are still lots of other jobs to do, such as sound control and getting the clappering set up with an electronic timing meter which I just happen to make and sell!

Eight bells hanging!

Another full day in the tower saw all 8 bells now sitting in place!

This photo shows bells 2 and 3 complete with their wheels and gallows ends at the rear, with bells 8,4,5 and 6 left-right across the middle.

The 2nd bell has had its bearings fixed down so that it could be raised. The 3rd on the right isn't too far behind.

Another bell finished

We really are making rapid progress now. Tonight the 4th bell was completed.

Here it is being tested.

Now our attention will be on getting bells 2 and 3 finished in time for Christmas!

Six bells swinging

A daytime session today saw the 4th fitted with its wheel, rope and stay, which was enough for the bell to be swung to check alignment and clearances.

 The next session should see the modified slider fitted and the pulley raised by 85mm.

The other milestone today was that we lifted the 'gallows ends' steelwork up the tower and 'parked' them near to where they will be needed using chain blocks to keep them upright. These will be put in place across the ends of the frame for bells 2 and 3.

Now it's 5 out of 8!

We have now finished hanging the 5th as well!

 

This is the bell in the middle of this photo, with the clapper tied using an old bicycle inner tube.

Also visible on the left is the 4th bell which is now sitting in its pit. When the wheel has been fitted, it can be accurately aligned and then screwed to the frame.

Behind this is the 3rd bell, which has been hidden in the far corner of the belfry for over 2 years. This is now sitting on planks so that the headstock can be fitted. It will then be lowered to the floor underneath so that the new steelwork can be put in place. This consists of two inverted 'U' shaped beams called "gallows ends" which tie the two sides of the frame together.

Half of the bells ringable!

Another landmark in the project was achieved tonight! In finishing the 6th, half of the bells are now ringable. These are the treble, 6th, 7th and tenor.

Here is the 6th.

We even rang rounds on the back 3 tonight, but I didn't have a spare hand to video it!

The 5th is nearly finished as well, so this ought to be finished next week.

Bells 5 and 6 raised

Bells 5 and 6 have been raised tonight. Here is a video of the 5th swinging in its pit.

The 6th just needs the slider and rope fitting, and it's finished.

The 5th needs the slider board modifying, the slider fitting, and the pulley raising by 85mm before it too is finished.

Great progress on bells 6 and 5

The 6th bell is now in place and the bearings bolted down. This enabled the bell to be raised by the wheel.

In the next pit, the 5th bell now has its wheel bolted onto the headstock. Once the alignment has been checked, it too will be bolted to the frame and ready for swinging up.

Both bells will then need their sliders and pulleys moving up by 85mm, the stays fitted followed by the rope and clapper.

Then onto the 4th which should be fairly straightforward. The difficult bells will be the 2nd and 3rd which will require some extra steelwork to tie the 1911 framework to the rest of the bellframe. There will be more on this when we get there...!

1, 7 and 8 finished

We now have three bells fully ringable!

This is the 7th bell set at handstroke.

And this is the bell being rung from down in the ringing room.

We have now started on the 6th, and the wheel is now fitted to enable the bell to be aligned in its pit.

7th bell nearly finished

The 7th bell is now virtually complete! Having repositioned the slider 85mm higher, the bell was raised by hand to check that it sets both ways.

Everything lined up nicely.

Here is a short clip of the bell lowering itself.

All that needs doing is the pulley to be raised 85mm.

Progress on the 7th

For the first time in a couple of years, the 7th bell is no longer sitting in a cradle made of off-cuts of steel salvaged from Malvern Link bell frame when I helped augment them back in 1993!

The bell is now sitting properly on its bed plates with the top half of the wheel in place.

The next job is to offer up the bottom of the wheel, and bolt it all together. Once it is all perfectly in line with the pulley (as checked with a plumb line) the bed plates will be coach-screwed to the frame.

After refitting the slider, and a few more minor tweaks, this bell will be finished and it will be on to the next one!

A ring of two!

Strensham are now a ring of two!

We finished hanging the tenor tonight, put the rope, stay and slider on, and tried it out.

The next bell to finish will be the 7th, with the other to follow. The 2nd and 3rd are a bit more complicated and will be done last.

Swinging tenor

The tenor is now sitting on its bearing, next to the treble.

The bed plates were collected over the weekend, so bell by bell they can now be fitted. The tenor was fitted tonight, and the bed plates fixed to the frame with coach screws. The bottom half of the wheel was put in place to check the alignment with the pulley.

All that needs doing now is to fit the stay and slider and to move the pulley up 85mm. The refurbished bearings mean that the bell is 85mm higher up!

Bells in position

All but 2 of the bells now have their headstocks fitted, are now in their final position, approximately. 

The other two, the 2nd and 3rd will be moved near to their pits, but the headstocks will be taken off so that the pulley, wheels and stays can be aligned.

 This photo shows, from left to right, the 4th (on the green planks), the tenor (in its pit) and in the shadow, the treble (finished and ringable). The lower half of the tenor wheel is also in place, although it still needs bolting to the headstock.

The view from above, from left to right the 6th, 5th, 4th, tenor and treble.

Much of the steel and timber above the bells is no longer needed, and will be removed in due course, opening up this view.

Fitting headstocks

The two largest bells have been reunited with their refurbished headstocks.

This is the seventh bell which is still being held in its pit by 4 long 16mm diameter bolts and a steel grillage made out of second hand steel salvaged from the 1993 augmentation at Malvern Link. The bell was moved up to the correct height using the nuts and without the need for any overhead beams or lifting gear.

And this is the tenor which is sitting on steel box section on top of the frame. It now needs lowering into the frame.

Headstocks

We've been plodding on bit by bit over the last few weeks. Firstly, there are now 8 ropes hanging in the ringing chamber, and they form quite a good circle.

The refurbished headstocks for bells 3-8 were delivered to the bottom of the tower a week or so ago, and tonight's job was to get them up the tower. The back two required the use of chain blocks, but 3-6 were light enough (just) to go up on a rope and pulley.

 

They are now sitting on planks in the belfry ready for the bed plates for the bearings to sit on. These bed plates will allow bells 4-8 to be hung.

6 ropes

There are now 6 ropes hanging in the ringing chamber, but only the treble (the one on the right) has got a bell on it!

Upstairs, things are progressing steadily but slowly. We are stiffening the 1911 frame now that it has to carry 2 bells instead of one. This will require a small concrete pad to take the extra weight.

More progress

The treble is pretty much finished now. The new slider arrangement works well and will need a small amount of adjusting to get the bell a bit lighter set.

Here are some closeups.

 

 Set at backstroke.

And at handstroke.

All that needs doing is to take accurate measurements of the clapper timing and make any adjustments to eliminate any oddstruckness. This will be done when all the other bells have been finished so that the timings can be correct for the whole ring, not just for one bell.

The other job partially finished is to put galebreaker over the tower windows. This will prevent any more rain from blowing in, potentially causing corrosion of any metal parts. It will also reduce the risk of rot in the timbers. Fortunately, the timber is generally sound internally, even though it is soft in some places on the exterior.

Treble flapper board

This is the flapper board for the treble. It is needed as the rope is drawn across to fall in the right place in the ringing room to produce a good rope circle.

There are pulleys at the top and the bottom and the boarding simply prevents the rope from sagging when not under tension, then vibrating when a force is applied. This vibration can be felt when ringing and it can be very off putting to the ringer.

Having tried it, the bell feels much easier to ring than without the board.

The stay has now been shortened, and the new slider mechanism will be made in wood, not steel. Hopefully this will be ready to install in the next week or so. This will mean that the bell is completely finished - one down, seven to go!

Treble stay and slider

 The treble stay and slider arrangement has been the source of a bit of head scratching. The original idea was to use a special type of slider pivoted just below the bearings called a pendulum slider. This type of slider can work well in tight spaces, but sometimes it bounces against the stay and the vibrations felt on the rope.

After a recent visit by Matthew Higby to check on progress, the idea came up to use a version of the traditional "peg and latchet" type as here at SS Philip and James in Leckhampton.

After taking a few measurements I fabricated a trial version using some scraps of wood.  This was fitted tonight and with the bell silenced using at old bicycle inner tube, and the bell was raised to test it out. Fortunately, all seems to work well.

The treble set at backstroke.

and at handstroke.

The stay is a bit long, and will be trimmed to length. The slider will be remade properly using steel plates and it will have adjustments to make sure that the bell is not to light or deep set.