The bells

Hour bells, service bells, memorial bells, ships' bells grown ambitious. A single bell is the purest commission: one note chosen for one purpose, heard alone, judged alone. Most of the great bells of the world are singles — a tenor with the parish to itself.

For change ringing in the English manner: six, eight, ten or twelve bells hung for full-circle work, cast to one profile family so they speak as one voice at eight weights. We cast a ring together, from one furnace campaign, for the same reason a family shares a name.

A ring of eight, tenor in E4 — —

Twenty-three bells and upward, chromatic, played from a baton clavier — the largest musical instrument in common use. We cast, tune, and voice the full compass, and rig the transmission so a carillonneur's pianissimo survives forty metres of tower.

Cracked crowns, worn cannons, clappers striking a century off true — most of our tower work is not casting at all, but keeping other founders' bells alive. We survey in place, rehang on new fittings, and where a bell is past saving we recast it with its old metal in the new pour, so the parish keeps its own bronze. A medieval bell that can be saved is never recast; we are not in the business of deleting other men's work.