Jubilee Bell Restoration Project

COMPLETED 20 February 2004
 

Object Of The Project

In 2002, the ringers and the Parochial Church Council chose this project as a tangible celebration of Her Majesty’s Golden Jubilee.

Their intentions were to:

  • Remove the risk of catastrophic failure of one or more bells because of corrosion.
  • Repair wear that had taken place since the last major maintenance in the 1920s.
  • Put the bells into order so that they may be rung excellently "to the Glory of God; to cheer the sorrowful, to comfort the sick, to rejoice with the happy and to call all willing hearts to prayer and praise.
  • Ensure that the bells will be available for future generations.

Work Done

  • Remove the stumps of the crown staples that were rendered redundant in the re-hanging in 1920s, and were corroding, with the risk of cracking the bells.
  • Service the ball bearings that support the bells.
  • Replace the clapper bearings.
  • Re-work eight of the clappers to adjust them to comparable performance.
  • Rework two headstocks to adjust them to comparable performance.
  • Strengthen the bell frame to reduce flexure.
  • Modify the path of some bell ropes.
  • Replace the bell ropes with a type better able to cope with the long draft in varying weather conditions.
  • Repair the crown of the cracked seventh bell.

The work required the bells to be removed from their headstocks.

 

Funding

The bellringers started fundraising immediately after the PCC approved of the project.  This continued until September 2003 when two major grants completed the process. In September 2003, The Onyx Environmental Trust made an award of £5,000.  The Bell Repair Fund of the Coventry Diocesan Guild of Church Bellringers contributed £1,900.  The remainder of the £13,000 originally budgeted came from donations and money raising activity by the ringers and was in place by the end of September 2003.A further grant of £ 2,968 from The Onyx Environmental Trust followed the discovery of cracks in the seventh bell, discovered on 6 January 2004.  This allowed us to have the bell repaired immediately and without delaying the project. We say a hearty “Thank You” to all who made the project possible by contributing funds.

 

Timing

Local volunteers began preparing the tower through weekly working parties in May 2003.  Mainly, this was general cleaning and repainting the structural steelwork.  It has also included the manufacture and fitting of bracing to stiffen the upper bell-frame.

Orders were placed with the contractors, Nicholson Engineering Ltd and Ellis Ropes Ltd, at the end of September 2003. 

The bells were disassembled as planned 5 to 7 January 2004.

The clappers and bearings were then refurbished and adjusted.  Two broken bearings were replaced.  Three clappers were cracked; two were replaced, the other repaired.

A disappointment was the discovery that the seventh bell was cracked in four places from the crown-staple stump to the shoulder.  Thanks to the prompt and swift action of the Diocesan Bell advisor Harry Windsor, the Diocesan Advisory Committee and The Onyx Environmental Trust, Soundweld Ltd, and Nicholson Engineering, the bell was repaired and the project was not delayed.

Reinstallation and commissioning was completed before lunch on 20 February 2004.

Formal testing of the bells in the evening of 20 February was a most enjoyable occasion that revealed the complete success of the project

The bells were rededicated at the Quarterly Meeting of the Coventry Diocesan Guild of Church Bellringers on March 13th 2004.