Videos

• Lowering the 2nd bell

• Lowering the treble bell

• Lifting the 5th bell from it's pit

• Removing a frame side

The day started by setting up the Ginny wheel to hoist the equipment up the tower. This included: chain blocks; power tools; baulks of timber; numerous strops; big spanners + breaker bar; an impact driver; lump hammers; sledge hammer and the all important electric hoist! Once the lifting tackle was in place floorboards were removed and work began on lowering the first bell - the third. Since this bell was directly above the opening in the floor, lowering it was straight forward. Once on the floor at the base of the tower it was loaded onto the pallet truck and wheeled into position in the aisle. Lowering the 2nd bell and treble was more involved as first they had to be moved into position over the opening in the floor. This was done using baulks of timber, and a combination of strops and chain hoists to lift and then pull the bell sideways until it was in a position to be lowered using the electric hoist.

Once the first 3 bells were lowered the frame side between 2 and 3 could be removed. This was relatively easy once the technique had been established of cutting off the ends of the 3/4" Whitworth bolts before attempting to undo them.. With the frame side removed the supporting RSJ was next. Then the fun began!

The RSJ's were buried in the tower walls to a depth of about 15", and each included a cleat at the end to prevent the beam from pulling out of the wall. So it was necessary to dig out stone and mortar from around a beam-end, and behind it, to facilitate its removal. At the other end the beams were attached to the main central RSJ by typically 6 x 5/8" Whitworth bolts. Here the impact driver was a great help, except for bolts that were difficult to reach due to being close to the tower wall. With bolts removed a sledge hammer was brought to bear to help to release each beam.

A complication of removing the bell frame was the Sanctus bell, which was hung in its own wooden frame and mounted above the main bell frame above the 2nd and 3rd bells. This was to be stored in the clock chamber, where it would be more accessible for others to look at it in the future. The wooden frame and bell wheel is very dilapidated and we were keen not to damage either in any way. With the 2-3 RSJ now removed it was possible to lower the Sanctus bell frame in one piece, along with the bell and its wheel, to the floor of the clock chamber.

The 5th bell was next to get down. Being in line with the opening in the floor this was quite straightforward, although it was too big to pass through the opening the clock chamber floor without first being cocked at an angle of about 30 degs. The 4th bell was lowered soon afterwards, followed by two more frame sides, and thus concluded the first full day of removing the bells from the tower.

Videos

• Lowering the tenor

• Dismantling the bell frame

Flushed with the success of the previous day we removed several more frame sides before taking on the tenor bell. We were fairly certain that the tenor would not fit through the opening in the clock chamber floor, even when cocked at an angle, but the question was by how much. The bell was carefully lowered into the clock chamber and into the opening in the floor at the best angle possible. We needed an additional 3" or so. 1" came from removing part of a batten that was holding up the floor boards; the other 2" came from cutting part of a beam away. The tenor then passed through with ease! (Hmm...) Then we set about the seriously hard work of removing the rest of the frame.

The remaining frame sides were removed with ease. That just left the grillage... There were 8 x 12" RSJs to be removed. With 1 already out there were 7 to go! The RSJ's were buried in the tower walls to a depth of about 15", and each included a cleat at the end to prevent the beam from pulling out of the wall. So it was necessary to dig out stone and mortar from around a beam-end, and behind it, to facilitate its removal. At the other end the beams were attached to the main central RSJ by typically 6 x 5/8" Whitworth bolts. Here the impact driver was a great help, except for bolts that were difficult to reach due to being close to the tower wall. With bolts removed a sledge hammer was brought to bear to help to release each beam. One by one the 7 beams were removed, lowered to the base of the tower, and moved to the churchyard. This just left one RSJ to go!...

Videos

• • Cutting the main beam in half

The 15" RSJ had been fabricated with two additional right-angled pieces that ran full length. These provided the bearing surfaces for the transverse beams that carried the weight of the frame sides and bells. Here, the thickness to be cut was around 35 mm! Initially a 9" angle grinder with a diamond tipped blade was attempted. Although this looked very dramatic progress was very slow. An electric reciprocating saw was more effective, especially with a new blade. About 5 blades were consumed from start to finish and then whole process took just over 3 hours to complete. We were eventually able to lift the two halves of the beam out of the tower about 4 hours after the first sparks started to fly. Once the two halves of the beam were lowered and moved to the churchyard, the rest of the day was spent collecting tools together, clearing them from the tower and clearing up.

Videos

• • Loading the lorry

The lorry was due to arrive at 10:00 which gave us plenty of time to move the bells from the church to the to the path leading into the churchyard. Starting with the tenor, bells were moved one by one out of the church and down the church path on the pallet truck. A telescopic handler, expertly driven by Richard, was then used to pick up each bell and load it onto the lorry. Frame sides were loaded 4 at a time on a pallet but it was necessary to load the RSJs one at a time. The lighter parts of the bell frame were loaded by hand. It took around 2 hours to load everything and another 2 hours to deep clean the church! Thanks to Julie, Wendy and Margaret for helping with this.