Page 50 - Phonebox Magazine August 2011

Bellringing in Olney Parish Church
The topic for this month’s article is Bell Founding which again is a specialist subject and has been kindly written by David Phillipson.
Bell Founding
Question: What is the connection between the Cathedrals of Coventry, Lichfield and Peterborough and St Peter and St Paul, Olney?
Answer: It is likely that the same ‘strickle’, the wooden shape which is used to form the external profile of a bell, was used for the casting of all four tenor bells, each being of around 25 hundredweight (1.25 ton) in weight.
Henry Bagley l cast the
original eight bells for Coventry Cathedral in 1675 (at the time the
first complete ring of eight bells in Warwickshire) and the tenor bell for Olney in 1682. His son Henry Bagley ll cast the ten bells for Lichfield Cathedral in 1686 (the
first complete ring of ten bells ever cast
for changeringing) and his nephew and apprentice Henry Penn cast the ten bells
for Peterborough Cathedral in 1709. It is known that the original strickles went from the Bagley foundry at Chalcombe when Henry ll set up the foundry at Ecton and when Henry ll died in 1703 Henry Penn
took over the foundry and inherited the strickles which were hanging on the walls.
I have seen a photograph of the Peterborough bell and the profile is
identical even down to the number and position of the horizontal moulding rings which can be seen on the photograph of
the Olney tenor bell on its return to the tower in 2009.
Sadly only two of these bells are still in existence and the tenor at Olney is the only one hung for full circle ringing. It is also the heaviest bell cast by Henry Bagley l still in existence. The tenor bell at Peterborough is
the only remaining bell of the original ten cast by Henry Penn in 1709 still in the tower and this bell is hung for chiming above the new ring of twelve bells hung in 1986. Another five of the originals were removed and sold to a Norfolk bell founder in 1831 and the remaining four bells are somewhere in Pennsylvania.
As I mentioned earlier Henry Penn was related to the Bagley’s by marriage and this was just one connection in a large bell founding dynasty. If you include marriage and apprenticeships there are links between over twenty bell founders from William Millers who died in 1506, through the family names of Newcombe, Watts, Atton and Bagley to the late 1700s. Incidentally it was a Newcombe and Watts who cast the oldest bell at Olney in 1599 (the current sixth bell), Henry Bagley ll who cast the seventh bell in 1699 and a Robert Atton of Buckingham who cast the eighth bell in 1631.
The activities were not restricted to the casting of bells. At the same time as Henry Bagley ll moved to Ecton in 1687, Matthew
The Flying Post of May 12th, 1716: London
“Last Thursday night about nine o’clock a tragical accident happened at the Royal Foundry near Upper Moorfields, where, when the workmen were casting a cannon, the metal that was running into the mould flew up on a sudden with a great noise and violence, and came down like drops of fire, not only upon all the workmen, but spectators(of whom there were a great number to see the performance). Several attended from the Tower, particularly Mr. Hall, clerk of the Ordnance, who was so sorely wounded that he dyed next morning. The Master Founder and his son with about twenty others were also very much hurt.’Tis generally agreed that the said accident was owing to the dampness of the mould.”
A total of 18 people were killed as a result of this accident. Of the Bagley’s both father and son died of their injuries as the burial register of St. Giles Church, Cripplegate shows:
1716 – May 22 Matthew Bagley, Founder, killed
May 26 Matthew Bagley, Jun., killed
David Phillipson
Ringing News
During August it is hoped that at least one of the newer Olney ringers will achieve their first quarter peal on six bells. A full peal is a completed set of changes rung to a pre-decided method such that on 8 bells or more at least 5000 combinations is rung once and no one sequence is repeated. A quarter peal is, as the name implies, one quarter of such a set. It is hoped that this milestone will be achieved on 20th August starting at 10.00 am
I hope you will have noticed that we are now in the season of weddings and it has been a great pleasure for the Olney ringers to help to celebrate the marriages of several couples during July and there are more to come over the summer months. We wish them all many years of happiness together.
Helen Dilley
50 Phonebox Magazine
Bagley moved to London and purchased the lease of the Royal Foundry at Upper Moorfields, Cripplegate, London. His task here was the casting of bronze cannon. This in a way was very similar to the casting of bells. Like bellfounding it also had its dangers and in 1716 a terrible accident happened:
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