Last and largest bell lowered to ringing gallery

It was an awesome site to watch the last and largest of the bells being lowered to the ringing gallery yesterday. The tenor bell, with a diameter of just over three and a half feet, was made by the John Taylor Bellfoundry of Loughborough back in 1912. It has hung for over 90 years at the top of the tower and stayed in tune despite the battering it has taken from the weather, and years of neglect. Inscribed on the side of the bell are the names of the rector, the Reverend William Horsburgh and churchwardens Hawkey and Flamank.  Click on the "play" button on the vid clip below and give it a minute to load!

 

 

The Reverend Horsburgh appears to have hailed from Ireland, which resonated (pun intended) with this author! The Flamank family is one of the most famous in Cornwall, as Thomas Flamank was one of the leaders of the famous Cornish rebellion of 1497. Quite incredibly, I have traced one of the Flamank descendants through marriage to Kris Flamank in Australia! Kris turns out to be an expert on the Flamank family and is pretty certain that the R.H. Flamank whose name is inscribed on the bell was a local butcher and farmer who may have worshipped with our Methodist brethren for some time.

Well, let's hope we don't have to wait another 90 years to get this marvellous bell back in action again!

Five Bells Lowered - Three To Go!

Over the last couple of days, Phil and team have carefully lowered five of the bells onto the ringing gallery.

To protect the floor of the ringing gallery, the bells have been set onto wooden templates, edged with orange paint as shown above.

One of the larger bells has the following inscription "This bell was given to St.Enoder church by Robert H.Chapman of Hendra, A.D. 1923".I'm sure someone in our congregation or "out there" might know if this person has relatives nearby. I'm sure Robert's descendants would be keen to have the opportunity to see this bell sitting where it is today!

This is the new trap door that Phil fitted during Phase I. I remember  one of the bell hanging companies telling us about a similar project where the floor was installed but without the trap door. When it came to lowering their bells ... oops!

This coming Monday, I'm hoping to video capture the last three bells - the oldest and the heaviest - being lowered. Watch this space and keep your fingers crossed that all goes smoothly!