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CATHEDRAL BELLS OF BATHURST
BELL SPECIFICATIONS
There are currently six bells made by Warner and Sons, Foundry of London, of England. It is proposed that another three bells be purchased to create a matching standard peal of eight, plus a tolling bell.
Bells are cast in bell metal, (a type of bronze), and weigh from less than 50 kilograms (1 cwt) to more than 450 kilograms (9 cwt). They are tuned to a normal diatonic scale. Each bell is attached to a wheel with a rope running round it, whose end hangs down to the ringing room below.
The bells are arranged in a bell-frame so that the ropes hang down in a circle. A swinging bell creates a sound of harmonic richness and sonority, which cannot be matched by the same bell hanging motionless and being hit by a hammer – as occurs in a carillon.
The bells were returned to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 1992 to be retuned and refitted with headstocks by Eayre and Smith.
Three new bells were made by Taylor’s Bell Foundry in 2005.
Original Bells
The six original bells are as follows:
No. 1 F 679 x 505 mm 201 kg Barlow Family
No. 2 E flat 733 x 546 mm 251 kg Hallstrom Family
No. 3 D flat 768 x 572 mm 289 kg Holcroft Family
No. 4 C 860 x 664 mm 379 kg Hurford Family
No. 5 B flat 914 x 686 mm 467 kg Yeates - Wiburd
No. 6 A flat 940 x 660 mm 395 kg (old tenor) Sloman
New Bells
Top A flat, 610 x 490 186 kg Bolam Family
G, and 635 x 510 205 kg T J Sargeant Family
A flat 991 x 792 603 kg (new tenor) McNeil Family
The old tenor bell will become the ‘tolling bell’, used to call people to worship.
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