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.