More volunteers than expected turned up on Wednesday morning to help Neil Deem, the professional in charge. He managed to keep them occupied. The clappers and much of the timber fittings – stays, sliders and slider guides, pulley boxes and frame side were hoisted and stored in the bell chamber.
Bell 4 needed to have its new bearings fitted and then Neil was free to supervise the hoisting of bells 4, 2 and 3. The most fit volunteers took the brunt of the hard work operating the manual chain hoist to haul them some 40ft above ground. There is insufficient headroom in the bell chamber to fit in an electric hoist and leave enough space for smaller manual hoists to help move the bells from the central access trap to the different parts of the bell frame.
Bell 4 went straight to its place, but just resting until final positioning. Bell 2 then 3 were placed on supports beside the frame. This allowed the cast iron frame member between bell pits 2 and 3 to be moved back into place.
While this was going on, the top half of the wheels for bells 5 and 6 were mated to the bottom halves and bolted onto the headstocks (red).
Some metal fittings were getting a second coat of enamel in the clock chamber.
By the end of the day 3 bells had their clappers installed. This is not an easy job because the heavy clapper and its top bolting assembly (‘crown staple’) have to be held by someone crouching inside the bell while the first nut is quickly spun down!
Accurate bolting down of the bearing blocks continued until xxpm.
Meanwhile some Badby ringers were having the last of their 35 Wednesday practices elsewhere, this last time at Staverton.
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