On Monday 28 July, bellhanger Neil arrived from Dorset at 9.30am bringing the paint and equipment to de-rust and protect the bell frame. He also brought five new ropes from Avon Ropes made for us.
Neil, with Chris Cozens also from Nicholson Engineering, unbolted the clock chime hammers so as to better paint the frame work and disconnected the system safely. Each day we had two volunteers to help and between them they will have contributed 13% of the total cost of the project. Many thanks!
Anne Prestwick and Steve Brooks had the first shifts which involved carrying the stuff up the tower and the two-day filthy task of getting the rust and old paint off the main steel girders and then sanding any corrosion and loose green paint off the cast iron frames. Three power sanders can produce a lot of noise and dust very quickly! It found its way into the church so a bit of extra dusting was needed before Sunday!
Neil also completed the shuttering, made by Steve on Tuesday, for cementing the west end of the southern beam, already protected with a new coat of anti-corrosion paint, firmly back into the wall.
On Wednesday Steve Chandler and Mike Thompson started the almost as dirty job of sweeping down the dust and dirt from the walls and vacuum cleaning the frame and floor of dust and dirt. Neil concreted the exposed beam end with over six bags of sand, grit and cement plus the water, all carried up the tower and vibrated in place. A start was made on the first of two coats of Rust-Oleum Noxyde Plus light grey anti-corrosion and weather proofing paint.
On Thursday Anne and Steve C carried on painting. By Friday morning two coats had been completed and Steve C, now joined by Sue Sutherland, got things ready for next week. Neil prepared the frame bolts for re-use before making his way back to Dorset for the weekend.
GHP
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