Stripping the frame

A small team of ringers worked over Christmas to clear the tower before the bell hangers arrived to remove the bells. They didn't have the heavy equipment needed to lift the bells but they were able to remove the wheels and stays and all the small fittings. If you compare this picture with the 2005 shot below you'll see just how much has been removed.

Number two bell is on the bottom left of both pictures with the tenor on the bottom right and the treble behind that. It's obvious that the stays, the wheels and the red struts that support the wheels have gone but a closer look at the floor will reveal that the red clock hammers have also gone. The bare hole in the centre of number two headstock shows that we've taken the clapper out. These are all small jobs but every hour that we can put into the preparation is an hour that we don't have to pay the skilled workers.

The work went easier than we had feared. We were worried that the nuts and bolts would be suffering from several centuries of rust and you can see from the top photograph that we came prepared with a tin of penetrating oil and a lump hammer. They were rarely needed. Most of the time a large spanner and a good heave were enough to free the threads.

The nuts and bolts turned out to be standard Whitworth sizes which was both a relief and a disappointment. Sir Joseph Whitworth introduced the concept of standard threads in the mid nineteenth century and our bells are older than that. We were wondering whether we might have some old blacksmith-cut threads on the fittings and whether our spanners would fit. None have turned up yet. The oldest fittings we've found so far have been some heavy forged nails and some struts where you can see where the blacksmith has punched rather than drilled the bolt holes.

A few days later

This is where number two bell used to be ...

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