Work
Five things done properly, and a list of things we will send you elsewhere for.
We take about forty jobs a year, which is the number eleven people can do without cutting anything short. If yours is not one we should be doing, we will say so on the telephone and give you two names who should.
The five
Judged on five partials
A bell sounds five notes at once, and the bar against each service below is that partial’s wavelength set against the hum. It is a chart, not a decoration — and it is how we think about the work, because a job that is right in four respects out of five is a job that sounds wrong.
Casting
Bells from six kilogrammes to one and three-quarter tonnes, cast in loam in the pit Josiah dug. Sanctus bells, single bells, augmentations to an existing ring, and complete rings of six, eight, ten or twelve. Inscriptions cut by hand in wax; you approve a rubbing before anything is poured.
Tuning
On our own vertical boring lathe, taking metal off the inside only. We will retune other founders’ bells and frequently do, including some that were tuned on the outside by people who should have known better. Every reading goes in the book against the bell’s number.
Hanging
Full-circle ringing, chiming, or a clock that has to strike without anybody in the building. Oak headstocks where the tower can take the weight and cast iron where it cannot. We design the frame to your tower rather than picking one out of a catalogue, and we will tell you if the tower needs looking at before the bells do.
Restoration
Cracked bells braze-welded in a controlled furnace over about a week, worn crowns re-fitted, Victorian frames jacked straight and pinned. We try to save a bell before we recommend recasting it, because a recast bell is a new bell wearing an old inscription and everybody in the village knows it. The oldest we have saved was cast in 1471.
Inspection
The quinquennial, and one-off surveys when something has started making a noise it did not use to make. We put a bar on everything that turns, photograph every defect, and write it up in language a churchwarden can act on. Where nothing needs doing we write that down too.
Also in the shop
The smaller jobs that keep a ring going
Most of what goes wrong in a tower is not the bell. It is everything hanging off it.
Clappers & fittings
New clappers turned in wrought iron to the bell’s own weight, crown staples renewed, bushes rebushed and baldrics replaced.
Usually one day in the towerFrames & foundations
Oak frame repairs, new steel frames designed to the tower, and honest advice about the masonry underneath before you spend anything on the bells.
Structural engineer on callClock & chime
Hammers refaced, Ellacombe apparatus overhauled, chiming barrels repinned, and Angelus mechanisms persuaded back into service.
Including non-Wrenfield clocksWheels & ropes
New wheels in ash and oak cut to the original pattern, sallies rewhipped in the yard, and ropes spliced, shortened or replaced.
Ropes usually within a fortnightReports & second opinions
Faculty applications, grant paperwork, condition reports for insurers, and a plain reading of somebody else’s quotation if it has worried you.
Second opinions charged at costSmall castings
Handbells, sanctus bells, ship’s bells, school bells, and the occasional doorbell for somebody sufficiently persuasive.
From £180Quoted in writing · Fixed before we begin · Guaranteed ten years
What it costs
Three scales of work
Published because being cagey about money wastes everybody’s afternoon. These are 2026 rates and they include getting to you; we are in Worcestershire and we do not charge Londoners more for it.
Inspection
from £480per quinquennial, fixed
- Full survey of bells, fittings and frame
- Written report inside fourteen days
- Photograph of every defect found
- No obligation to instruct us for the work
Maintenance & repair
£95per hour, plus parts
- Two-person gang, tower-trained
- Travel and access charged at cost
- Most jobs are one or two days
- Anything over £2,000 quoted fixed first
Most enquiries
New work & restoration
Quotedfixed price, in writing, before we begin
- Casting, tuning and hanging as one contract
- Faculty and grant applications supported
- Staged payments against agreed milestones
- Ten-year guarantee on everything we cast
Before you write
The five questions everybody asks
Can a cracked bell really be welded?
Usually, yes. The bell is stripped, cleaned back to bright metal, brought up to temperature over about three days in a controlled furnace, braze-welded, then brought back down over another three. It cannot be rushed at either end. A welded bell is retuned afterwards and in most cases nobody can tell. Where we do not think a weld will hold, we say so and explain why.
How long from first enquiry to bells in the tower?
For a single new bell, about five months. For a complete ring of eight with a new frame, closer to eighteen, of which the faculty and the fundraising are usually the longest part rather than anything we do. Repairs and rehangs are far quicker — often six to eight weeks from order.
Do the bells have to come out of the tower?
For tuning and welding, yes — the lathe does not travel. For rehanging, new fittings, wheels, ropes and most frame repairs, no. We would rather work in your tower than lift a bell out of it, and we will always tell you which category your job falls into before you commit to scaffolding.
Can you match a new bell to an existing ring?
That is most of what we do. We take readings from your existing bells first, then cast and tune the new one against them rather than against a theoretical scale. If the existing ring is itself out, we will show you the readings and let you decide whether to fix that at the same time.
What about faculties and grants?
We prepare the technical parts of a faculty application as a matter of course and it is not charged separately. For grants we can supply drawings, specifications and costings in the format most funders want, and we are happy to be quoted in an application before you have appointed anybody.
Enquiries
Not sure which of those it is?
Neither are most people who ring us. Describe the noise, the tower and roughly when it started, and we will work out the rest.