The Bells, The Bells
 

Last Wednesday we celebrated the centenary year of Smalley Church bells which were gifted by the Rev Charles Kerry in 1912. This chime of 5 bells is reputed to be the heaviest in England with the largest bell weighing 2 tons and a new bell tower was constructed to accommodate them. The bells were cast by John Taylor & Sons Looughborough who are still in business. They were delivered by rail to Derby and then transported to Smalley by traction engine & trailer and stayed overnight at the Rose & Crown before final delivery.

We re-enacted this event with the Foster and trailer including obligatory visit to the Rose & Crown. Unfortunately the bells were only papier mache replicas.The Marshall roller was also in attendance.

These are the original bells on the trailer (sadly no picture of the engine) and awating installation in the bell tower.

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...DSC_0134r1.jpg

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...DSC_0136r1.jpg

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...6/DSC_0051.jpg

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...6/DSC_0054.jpg

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...6/DSC_0055.jpg

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...6/DSC_0073.jpg

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...6/DSC_0082.jpg

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...6/DSC_0091.jpg


http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...6/DSC_0102.jpg

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...6/DSC_0106.jpg

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...6/DSC_0117.jpg

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...6/DSC_0146.jpg

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...6/DSC_0150.jpg

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...6/DSC_0174.jpg

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...6/DSC_0180.jpg

And the sun was out !!. :cool: Although....it could all be a master plan by local enginemen to replace the real bell's with paper ones all right under the nose of the local Vicar !.
Also i do wonder why these pictures where posted at a strange hour, perhaps the Bell's where being melted down in the small hours to avoid the attention of the law and where posted when time allowed !.

You got us bang to rights Mr Boesing and we'll come quietly. Are you an undercover policeman? If so I must be more circumspect in my postings.

Yes the sun did shine on the righteous unfortunately the damn thing was in the wrong position most of the time. I'll have to have words with our clergy friends in the movement to see if they can appeal to their boss to get it moved for us poor photographers.

We have a church in our village which had 5 bells from new, over the years only one was left to ring, so the village has been working hard to pay for the repairs, a new bell frame to hang them on and a sixth bell to complete the collection.
The money was raised and last summer the present Mrs Vine and myself went to the dedecation of the bells,only 5 others from the village went.
It seemed to me that not everyone is lucky enough to go to such an event, as this hardly ever happens in your life time, and after all the hard work and money, they could not drag themselves from the bloody television for just 2 hours and be part of the celebrations.
I bet they will want the bells to ring if someone from their family gets married.
Glad to see you were involved in your local church and could be part of their celebrations.
Mark.