Latest update from Val Cowel and Dave Symonds (Bell Master)
Since the last report about the bells we had bad news. The bell founders were not able to re-tune one of the bells as it had a hairline crack inside it. We tried to get permission to recast it but were not allowed to melt down the old bell. We thought of getting it welded, but there was a very complicated and costly process to go through before we could get permission to do that, and there would be no guarantee that it would last.In the end, we decided to retain the old bell as it is and get a new bell cast. We have been lucky enough to get a grant to help pay for this. The bell founders are casting the new bell this week.The exciting outcome of this is that we already have a Queen Victoria Jubilee Bell and now we will have a Queen Elizabeth 11 Jubilee bell too.We hope that it will only delay the rehanging of the bells by a couple of weeks.