Dedication Service

 The service of dedication took place yesterday for the new bells. This was part of the service and AGM for the local bellringing Association.

I took the chance to take some video from outside the tower. The strong swirling wind made for some interesting audio effects!

Mary Weatherill, Licensed Lay Minister :-
Almighty God, we offer to you all the work that has been undertaken to restore the bells in this church and give thanks for the volunteers who have worked so hard to achieve this. We ask you to bless, sanctify and hallow all that has been done in this tower. Bless with your grace and skill all who ring here, and grant that the message of the bells may lift the hearts of all who hear them.
We dedicate these bells to the Glory of God, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen

David Bagley :-
Gracious Lord, we receive these restored bells on behalf of your living church and the wider community. May we use them to proclaim your glory to the world.
Amen

Odd jobs

 There are only a few little jobs still to do.

One of these was to partially board up the south window in the belfry to try to prevent the 3rd and 6th bells from being excessively loud in this direction.

This is the side of the tower facing the path up to the porch so it will be a more pleasing sound to those outside.

The windows on the north and east sides have now had a layer of carpet tiles added over the boarding to further reduce the overall volume in the direction of the only close neighbour.

Visiting ringers

 Here is a video posted on on YouTube of some high quality ringing on the bells at Strensham rung by a visiting band from Devon. Enjoy!

As for the bells, the swing times and clapper times have now been (nearly sorted)  with just the 5th and 7th needing some further minor tweaking.

Here is an unusual view taken by the bell hanger Matthew Higby.

There is still quite a bit of tidying up to do, but essentially the project is complete and regular ringing can resume.

Heritage Open Days

 As part of the national Heritage Open Days for 2021, I gave two talks in the church. These were on the church and bells, which of course outlined the augmentation project.

Here are the screen and projector all set up and ready to go!

This talk is the full length version of the one I did for the CCT's volunteer of the year presentation back in February. You can see that talk here.

 

Sound Control

 The only house next to the church is on the north-east side of the tower, and reducing the volume of the bells as much as possible on this side is important.

Both the north and east sides now have timber blocking the tower windows. To make it even more effective, a layer of carpet tiles is needed to reduce the sound level even more. The north side was completed recently, and the east side needs doing next.

 The west side will be kept fully open but the south side will be partially blocked as the 3rd bell swings into the window opening and rings louder than the other bells as a result and is very noticeable when listening from the outside. Blocking up the bottom half of the window will prevent this from happening.

New ringing room carpet!

 We have a fantastic new carpet!

It really looks lovely. Now we need some new mats to go with it.

 

Ready for the new carpet

A new carpet is being fitted in a couple of days, so tonight we got as much as possible out of the way. The old carpet was rolled up and taken away and the floor vacuumed in readiness.

The two benches left behind are too big and heavy to take down the ladder so the carpet fitter will just have to move them aside and work around them.