Belfry Stewardship Committee
Guild-wide Bell Stock Survey
Towers which have completed the survey.
In the late 1990s the Guild launched an ambitious project to compile a survey of every belfry in the Guild's area of operation. During 1998/99 every tower with three or more bells hung for ringing was provided with a self completion questionnaire and comprehensive notes for guidance to facilitate this "Guild-wide Bell Stock Survey" Over 50 towers took the time and trouble to respond. The responses were exemplary and provided a wealth of valuable data to assist the Guild's work of care and stewardship of the bell heritage we have in trust. However many towers did not, leaving the survey incomplete and much diminished in value. In recent months, under the auspices of the Guild Executive the Belfry Stewardship Committee has, with the support of several co-opted members, sought to breath fresh life into this venture, and to seek ways to both computerise the data already received, (to enhance its usefulness and accessibility) and to encourage more towers to pick up the baton and compile a return.
One barrier to further activity by towers has been identified as the loss or misplacing of the original survey documents. As a response these have now been placed on the Guild web-site as downloadable files removing the problem of availability and saving the cost of further reproduction. The web pages contain a downloadable version of the survey form [pdf 57KB or word 309KB] which consists of a four A4 page document covering the church, tower/turret, bell frame and its foundations, historical ringing records and a general description of the current condition of the installation, together with a separate double side A4 pro forma [pdf 22KB or word 107KB] for recording the details of each bell (1 per bell). There is, in addition, a Notes for Guidance document [pdf 160KB] which is 12 pages A4 in length and includes the various "codes" used to simplify and standardise responses to description of the various components of the bell gear etc.
I do hope that as a result your tower will now feel encouraged to provide a return if this has not already been accomplished in the past. We already have responses from the towers listed, though in some cases these pre-date major restoration works and could usefully be updated.