Thanks to John for this picture of the new bell that was hung in St Helen’s Church two days ago. I heard from another source that it will ring the hours, and be louder and more noticeable than the current bell.
Thanks to John for this picture of the new bell that was hung in St Helen’s Church two days ago. I heard from another source that it will ring the hours, and be louder and more noticeable than the current bell.
I hope it was well hung.
louder and ringing on the hour – how nice for the neighbours.
Didn’t some chap who moved in very nearby only recently – as in, the church and bells were already there when he chose to buy his house, manage to get the bell muffled as it was too loud and disturbed him?
I used to be able to hear the bell quite clearly from my house, then about 5 years ago, we couldn’t any longer.
He did indeed Daniel, claimed the bells breached his human rights regarding noise pollution or similar, glad to hear th back in full peel now, on a similar subject the mosque in the Cowley road put an application in to allow for “the call to prayer” to be broadcast, anyone know how that went ?
The mosque withdrew the application if I recall correctly
but will it really be clanging on the hour 24 hours a day?
what possible justification could there be for that?
Its part of our heritage Rudi, harks back to before the lamp lighter and the “all is well” time man, but it was more about letting the labourers in the fields know what the time was.
…I have a feeling, like many churches, it won’t ring ALL night…but hopefully enough to annoy that bloke who got it quietened.
I like the bells, which is why I moved near enough to hear them.
Don’t like that river though. Can we move it?
Daniel don’t be silly everyone knows it was routed there so Abingdons favourite builder could build riverside apartments!
Poor resident …… didn’t he realise that buying a house near a church that’s been there century’s long before his house, might result in the peel of bells?
There was a single objection to the faculty to replace the bells ten years ago, by a resident who has now moved away. The result of this single objection was the installation of extensive sound-proofing and sound control. The original hour-bell was quite loud as there was little obstruction in the belfry windows, but the new bell was then placed behind concrete blockwork and insulation materials, as required by the faculty agreement. Not only did the ringing bells become very quiet, the hour bell was even quieter, as a struck bell (i.e. one which does not swing) has a relatively low sound level and is also way down behind the sound-blocking. Both the ringing bells and the clock bell were severely reduced in volume and for the last ten years, some residents have noted that they can no longer hear the bells in places where they used to. They are a superb ring of bells, and bought at considerably expense purely by donations and a bequest left for this very purpose. The idea of installing a separate clock bell was to position it higher up above the other bells to that it is closer to the less-obstructed openings in the spire, thus making the hour chime more audible to the town, although still not quite as loud as the pre-2005 bell.
The bell was cast in 1902 by Henry Bond of Burford. It is the largest remaining bell by Bond, and Bond was the last Oxfordshire bellfounder, closing before World War II. This bell used to hang at Long Crendon Church, but was replaced by one of the old St. Helen’s bells which was more suitable to match their other bells. Thus the hour bell that you will soon here has a local connection and re-establishes a unique bit of history.
Wow ! How amazing is this info, I had no idea bells were removed and swapped, so they/someone still make new bells? How much do they cost ? I did see the Whites of Appleton vans outside the church, I know they are many generation family bell hangers, but would they source bells too,
That certainly is fascinating, thank you Mark.
I guess, the fact some bloke thought the bells were too loud, so got them muffled…and has now moved away…we’re stuck with his whim?
while people near a church should expect to hear bells at certain times of the week i think it’s bang out of order to deliberately make a bell ring at times when people will be asleep – nobody needs to hear an hourly chime at 1am, 3am etc etc – doing that is just going out of your way to annoy people – even the quietest sound can wake you in the middle of the night.
Je Suis Francaise.