St Ambrose, Leyland, Lancashire

Taylor c9cwt, 1909, Ab

Wheel extremely fragile and there is no slider and only the base of the original stay remains in the socket.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• bells
• taylor
• ambrose
• st
• leyland
• m6
• 1909

[MrWurlitzer1]

It must be 35 years since I was last up there ! I have always wondered about the smaller bell, it's history etc. Anyone ? (Also how small the belfry now seems, I was 14/15 then.)

[whittlebells]

@MrWurlitzer1 cnt from above... The bells of St Mark's were a 16cwt ring of six and would have been suitable for the tower. If funds were ever available, new bells could be cast and added to the current larger bell, which is something a fellow ringer and I have mentioned at St Ambrose. The tower is in super condition but the chamber is open to rain. Any new installation would probably be installed in the upper section of the ringing room and the bells rung from the ground floor.

[MrWurlitzer1]

@whittlebells Many thanks for your interesting reply. This has to be one of the finest Victorian towers in the area,majestic but simple. The one thing it is missing is a voice. Imagine the sound of a full peal coming from that tower. Who knows, one day....? All those years ago when I was last up there, I walked onto the floor of the area you mention as a possibility for the bells, (above the baptistry) It was terrifying, as the gaps in between the floor boards was so great..what a drop ! Thanks.

[whittlebells]

@MrWurlitzer1 It's almost a year since a fellow ringer and I got the bell ringing once more. We rang it for Evensong on two occasions, and for 'Back to Church Sunday' morning service. Shortly after, a typical churchwarden decided to fit a padlock to the tower door, and has said that the tower is unsafe, rotten and the bells could fall if used. Utter rubbish! Yet another stuffy churchwarden who thinks he owns the place and gets in the way of progress.

[whittlebells]

@MrWurlitzer1 They're basically two service bells and yes, they are an octave apart. The smaller bell which is on a rocker, weighs 1cwt approx, and possibly isn't fit for full circle ringing. However, Taylors installed the larger bell with the hope that one day five or seven more would be added. I was told that the bells from St Mark's Preston were offered to St A's, but the church had other priorities at the time... cnt below

[niche2000]

No stay or slider?

[whittlebells]

@niche2000 if there ever once was a slider, it has since been removed, probably when the lead floor was installed/renewed. And there's no stay.

[MrWurlitzer1]

@whittlebells So the tower has no voice at all now ! "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord !" I ring the bell at my present church, (as well as play the organ, but not at the same time !) and you should see the condition of that...a steel bell of 8wht ,in a rusty frame, standing on two oak beams. There is a long story to the ringing of this bell, but no space here. I made it so that we just swing the clapper ! It past the quinquenial this year, so it can't be that bad.

[MrWurlitzer1]

It's me again, I have just remembered , I was told that a peal of bells was once offered, but that the tower was thought not capable of handling the job. Are the two bells an octave a part, if so, was this the start of the unfortunate peal ?