Bellringers

Norton has a large group of ringers whose practice night is normally on Thursday at 7.30pm. At the present time there are about 15 ringers for the eight bell tower and the bell captain, John Bentley has many years experience in the art of campanology, thus making him an excellent teacher.

If you wish to book the tower please do not come through the web site but contact the representative listed in the normal book.

Originally the tower was built for five bells however there was a fire in the tower on 29th July 1894 and the bells fell to the base of the tower. They were then recast by J Warner and Sons and were dedicated on 22nd July 1895 as a six bell tower and space was left for two further bells on the cradle.

The two further bells were added for the Millennium and these two bells were cast at the Whitechapel foundry and were hung as the Treble and No 2 bell.

The details of the bells are as follows.

Bell Note Weight in Cwt's

Treble E 5.2

2 D# 6.0

3 C# 6.3

4 B 7.2

5 A 8.3

6 G# 10.1

7 F# 13.3

Tenor E 18.0

Assistance by the Millennium Fund £15,000.00p

The molds for Tenor and No2 No2 Mold

Pouring No2 Bell The finished product (Note the flowers in the head stocks)

This is the process of our millennium bells being cast and later being stored in the Vestry just before they were hung. Below some of the team who went to the Whitechapel foundry to watch the bells being cast

The new Sound Attenuation ceiling

We all know that church bells have been rung to call worshipers to services for centuries – but not many are aware that the art of ‘change ringing’ is a particularly English tradition. With four or more bells in a church tower, they can be rung in continuously varying patterns with mystical names such as Grandsire Doubles, Bob Triples or even Double Norwich Court Bob Major. There are 5000 churches in England where such change ringing can be accomplished, just 100 in Scotland and Wales and only 200 in the remainder of the world: for example, in New Zealand there are just five!

Hearing the church bells ringing is a significant part of our wonderful environment in Norton sub Hamdon, and so is practiced here an important English cultural activity. Not only does such bell ringing involve considerable manual skill (it is far more than ‘just pulling a rope’), memorising and executing the ever-changing ringing patterns require deep concentration. So there is always something new for every bell ringer to learn. John Bentley, our Bells Captain says so and he has been ringing in Norton church for nearly 60 years!

The consequences of unwanted sound effects, internally in the Ringing Chamber, are that they make it very difficult for the ringers to hear the timing of the bells accurately, the instruction calls being given and the possibility that their hearing may become impaired. Quite regularly expert bands visit Norton Church to ring either a Quarter Peal (about 1¼ hours) or a Full Peal (over 3 hours) and they complain about these problems. So for existing and would-be ringers, this is a deterrent which needs to be avoided.

Importantly, those in the general public when listening to the bells chiming may observe inaccurate ringing if all the ringers’ actions are not co-ordinated within a fraction of a second of each other. Indeed Gordon Rendell, a leading bell ringer in the district, says that he observed this situation in Norton Church way back as 1946 and has been waiting for a remedy ever since!

The method of sound reduction for the Ringing Chamber used for over 100 years, from the restoration of the Church Tower after the fire in 1894 until the refurbishment of the bells for the Millennium, was the use of bags of oil-soaked sawdust laid directly under the bells.

When the bells were recast and re-installed in 1895, with amazing fore-thought, the new wooden frame to hang the bells had space for two additional bells installation later when sufficient funds became available. Then prior to 2000, the Friends of Norton Bells, led by Phil Davis, raised approximately £25,000 for refurbishment of the bells and to increase their number from six to eight. However, there were not sufficient funds available at that time to install adequate sound attenuation measures

The Tenor Bell (18cwt) in the raised position.

So, the previous method of sound reduction was used again, with the exception that oil soaking of the sawdust was avoided for fire hazard reasons. This limited its effectiveness and, in addition, there were now two extra bells to create more unwanted sound internally. It has proved to be inadequate, even when supplemented by pieces of carpet, but this was the only course of action possible, until now, for financial reasons.

A second project was launched in late 2007, this time by the Friends of Norton Church (FNC) action group to reduce the sound levels for the bell ringers from 79 decibels down to 70 decibels. This ‘logarithmic scale’ measurement – showing double the required level - and a remedial specification were provided in a visit report dated November 2005 by John Hallett, a Tower Advisor from the Bath & Wells Diocesan Association of Change Ringers.

£2000 of Douglas Fir A beam about to be raised into Position

The total cost of this project, involving three contractors, was estimated to be in the region of £4,000. The money required was raised from funds raised by bell ringers, FNC events, Mike and Lynne Orchard’s village calendars and grants applied for by John Ashton. On the basis of church bell change ringing being an important English cultural pursuit John, with valued guidance from the South Somerset District Council’s Community Development Officer, was successful in obtaining grants from the Somerset County Council Community Chest and from Awards for All.

Peter Thomas, our Rector, has taken a leading position in the project, having obtained authority from the Diocesan Advisory Committee. This is known as a ‘faculty’, being the term for the Church’s internal planning permission procedure.

Ceiling nearly in place Ringing in a quieter room!

The previously mentioned Gordon Rendell, a carpenter by profession, was appointed to conduct the necessary work. Therefore, he has both the knowledge to specify in detail what was needed and the skills to carry it out.

A new ‘false’ ceiling, comprising 2 inch thick of Douglas Fir, has being installed over an area approximately 15 feet by 15 feet square. The great weight of this timber requires the support of two 9 inch by 4 inch beams, with two wall plates as well. Lifting of all this very heavy timber from the vestry floor through a trap door in the Ringing Chamber floor required special lifting equipment – a ‘Toufer’ - and great care to avoid any damage or accidents. In addition, ‘sound boxes’ for each of the bell ropes were made by Gordon and installed between original and new ceilings. Special sound insulation material was laid over the new ceiling (and old, ineffective carpet tiles were removed from the floor of the Bell Chamber).

Gordon also supervised additional work by Edward Venn for necessary changes to the lighting system and by Kenneth Woodley to alter the mechanism which prevents the clock striking when the bells are being rung.

John Hallett was invited again to measure the reduced sound levels in the Ringing Chamber. In his report, dated March 2008, he lists readings which show that all the bells met the 70 decibels requirement and the lighter bells by quite a large margin. To achieve a better internal sound ‘balance’ between all the bells, some of the plastic bags of sawdust in the Bell Chamber were removed and additional insulation was applied to the doors of both Chambers to reduce the sound travelling down the staircase. There were some additional tasks set in both of John Hallett’s reports and Gordon has completed them all.

Therefore, a very welcome result has been achieved for bell ringers – both Nortonian and visiting – and ‘hearers’ alike.

Many thanks are expressed to all those, whether they be individuals or organisations, who participated in this project’s management, financing and assistance.

Malcolm Reid.