The Parish Church of
Saint Mary and All Saints, Whalley

11th October 2024

Another hard weeks work on the Whalley Parish Church Centenary bell refurbishment project !!

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The main object of this phase of the work was to fit the new bell sound control system. This involved fitting wooden shuttering on the inside of all four louvred windows within the bell chamber. This was a time consuming job due to the irregular shape of the louvred windows. Timber battens and marine plywood sheets had to be carefully shaped to fit within each of the louvred windows. No two windows were the same shape so each timber piece had to be carefully shaped to fit while leaving minimal gaps for the bell sound to escape.

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Hinged flaps were then created to allow either blocking of the bell sound when closed or allowing the bell sound out when opened. In addition, a removeable bottom section allows access to clear any birds nests or other debris building up behind the shuttering.

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After a hard weeks work which finished at around 8.00pm on the Friday, all the sound control shuttering, flaps and removeable panels are now in place. There was not enough time to fit the sound insulating material within the shuttering, the motorised actuators for opening the flaps together with the required wiring. This will be done during another weeks work starting on the 4th November.

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Also this week, the ringing room rope ceiling bosses were fitted, wiring for the sound control switches fitted and the old floor covering removed in the ringing room. New carpet will arrive on Wednesday such that the ringing room is ready for the forthcoming  celebration and thanksgiving event on Saturday the 19th October.

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After all the wood cutting, the bell chamber is covered in sawdust and a big cleanup day is planned before the ringing room carpet is fitted.​

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Once again a big thankyou to Dave and Ian from our local band, Stuart from the Barnoldswick ringers and Chris from Nicholson's Engineering who all worked tirelessly to install the sound control and finish the ringing room.

 

One more phase of work starting on the 4th November should finally complete the project !!

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Adrian West: Tower Captain