City’s historic bells to ring true after restoration work
ANCIENT bells at a former Wolverhampton church are to be removed for renovation work, council bosses said.
The eight bells at St Luke’s Church in Blakenhall, which is now closed for worship, were cast and hung in 1897.
Listed building consent for the church, in Moor Street South, to temporarily remove the bells from its tower to refurbish the fittings and re-hang them with new ball-bearing-based gudgeons was granted this week.
The work will involve raising each individual bell out of position then lowering them through trapdoors in the belfry and chamber floors, before they can be transported to the bell foundry.
Each single bell was cast by James Barwell of Birmingham.
A heritage statement on behalf of Simon Linford of Magic Unicorn Limited, who made the planning application for the work, said: “The bells are listed in Dove’s Guide to the Church Bells of Britain, maintained by the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, which is the definitive database for information.
“Barwell was not a particularly renowned maker of bells and only a small number made by the company still exist. There is a complete ring of eight bells by the company at St Michael’s in Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield, which were cast in 1906 and are considered to be tonally superior to the ring tone of the Blakenhall bells.
“The bell installation is slightly unusual in that the cast-iron frame is bolted onto a timber subframe. It is not intended to change the frame, however.
“The bells are accessed via an entrance external to the main church. Stairs inside the tower lead to the ringing chamber. From there a vertical ladder leads to an intermediary chamber and a further ladder goes into the belfry. In order to get onto the bell frame you pass through the pit of the fourth bell, which is extremely unsatisfactory.
“Even before St Luke’s church closed for worship the bells were seldom rung on account of their difficulty.
“The bells retain their ‘plain’ rather than ball bearings, which means greater effort is required to ring them. Putting the bells on modern ball bearings will reduce the need to go into the belfry for an annual maintenance inspection by an experienced bell hanger.”