Much cleaner

It's been a dirty job at times, but the cleaning is pretty much done. Centuries of dust/grit had accumulated and needed removing. Several refuse sacks were filled, as were many Henry bags.

 

This is the room between the ringing room and the belfry.

We also tidied up the ringing room where the wheels have been stored while the work took place upstairs.Now we are ready to treat the wood so that the wheels are ready for the next 100 years!

The three retuned bells ought to be making their way back fairly soon. It will be a big step forward when we start putting things together instead of taking them apart!

Belfry notice

 The three Rudhall bells have been tuned, and the results are beautiful!

This is the 4th. Just listen to it! Analysis of the recordings shows that all three bells are very nearly harmonically (Simpson) tuned.

Cutting metal on the outside of the sound-bow corrects the profile of the bell, meaning that true harmonic tuning becomes possible.

Here is the profile of the 5th before and after tuning.

 There are all sorts of  notes here!

 Much cleaner, and all except the tierce are spot on.

Now that all the bell work has been done and the the details are known, I have been able to update the tower notice!

In the workshop

The three Rudhall bells are now being worked on in Matthew Higby's workshop.

The first stage after removing the headstocks is to remove the old wooden pads and to cast an epoxy resin pad on top of the bell.

This is the 5th bell with the pad newly cast.

This pad is then machined to provide a flat surface for when the bell is put on the vertical boring machine for tuning.

Concreting

The two concrete pad-stones for the steel beam for the new treble in the north east corner were cast today. Once the steel is cut to size and put precisely in place, more shuttering will be cut and the recesses completely encased in more concrete.

This is the pocket in the east wall with the concrete newly poured, leveled and smoothed.

We also continued with the massive tidy-up by removing the layers of carpet in the room between the bells and the ringing chamber, dropping the many pieces down to the ground level using the rope. We then took the carpets outside and shook them in the gale force wind.

This carpet was put down some years ago for acoustic reasons, otherwise the bells would be far too loud. This room will be thoroughly cleaned before the carpet is put back down.

 

This has also given us the chance to plan where the ropes might eventually fall to make a good circle. 

The rope holes for the three largest bells will be the same as they were previously. Some of the others will need to be drawn across at a slight angle on pulleys, but the general idea is to use the existing holes (of which there are several generations of old ones to choose from), or the gaps between the beams for the ropes to pass through to the ringing chamber.

A big step forward

Today's plan, with Matthew Higby's help, was to take down the back two headstocks and the three Rudhall bells for tuning....

 and to take up the new trebles...

Both jobs were successfully achieved!

While the Rudhall bells are away, the big clear up will now continue. We will also carry on with preparing the wall pockets for the treble framework and accurately measuring the space for the new steel beam. The holes in the wall are cut, and the concrete padstones now need casting at the right height

A new trapdoor

We have a nice new trap door!

These brand new 7" x 3" planks replace identical (but rotten) ones put up in 1911 when the flooring in the SE corner of the tower was modified to allow the bells through. The trap door is needed again to get the three bells through so that they can be tuned.

We have also continued with the big clear up, and had two vacuum cleaners going tonight.

There is still lots more tidying up to do which will keep us busy until the retuned Rudhall bells and refurbished headstocks come back. They are being collected on Friday.

Everything ready for the bellhanger

Finally, we are ready for Matthew Higby to come and take three bells for tuning and 5 headstocks away for refurbishment.

The tenor headstock came off easier than we thought, with only one of the four bell bolts needing to be cut off. It was carefully lifted off the bell with a chain block, being a bit too heavy to lift otherwise.