St. Nicholas, Burton

Report to PCC

This is an explanation of the extra work done on the Treble Bell.

When a bell is "Up", ready for ringing, it is an inverted position and the stay rests against its stop to prevent it from falling over. The attachment of the rope to the wheel is such that, when it is up one way, the ringer has the Sally (the woollen tufting woven into the rope) and the tail end of the rope in his hands in front of him. The bell is said to be set at hand-stroke. When the rope is pulled, the bell rotates through about 90° so that it is now horizontal and the sally is now at its lowest point. As the bell turns through the remaining 270° the rope rises rapidly as it coils over the rim of the wheel and the ringer id now left with the tail of the rope in his hands above his head. The bell is now set at back-stroke. On the bottom of the frame is secured a small pullet wheel, the ground pulley, and its purpose is to change the direction of the rope as the bell turns. (Sketches supplied).

The position of the Garter Hole - the hole in the rim, or sole, of the wheel where the rope passes through it - and the distance that the ground pulley is below the bottom of the wheel, are directly responsible for the lengths of the two strokes relative to each other.

The distance that the garter hole is from a point midway between the two rope spokes measured along the sole of the wheel is termed the garter drop and should be the diameter over the soling multiplies by 0.4188. The ground pulley height should be four inches. However, if the rope has to be drawn under the wheel for any reason, such as to clear a beam or make a better rope circle in the ringing chamber, then these two dimensions must be altered. The garter drop must be increased by three-quarters of the draw and the pulley height by half the draw.

In the case of your Treble Bell, these figures bore no resemblance whatsoever to what they should have been. There were, in fact, two garter holes, neither of which was in its correct position. One was 17" and the other 31" from the top.

The diameter of this wheel is 48½" so the garter drop should be 48.5 x 0.4188 = 20.311. This would be the case if the rope had a straight fall but this one is drawn under the wheel by 7". The garter drop, therefore, is 48.5 x 0.4188 x 5.25 (75% of the draw) = 25.561, say 25.5 inches, and the pulley height will be 4 + 3.5 (50% of the draw) = 7.5". This figure was found to be 10½".

The bracketing of the pulley to the frame was such that another box had to be used with a new back board to enable it to be moved upwards into its correct position.

A working drawing to the scale of half size is available should you require it.