ABINGDON BELLS: Conclusions9 CONCLUSIONS
9.1 Historically, the Abingdon frame should be considered alongside other frames built or modified by the Samuel and Robert Turner at about this date. These include the former frames at Dunstable Priory and Long Crendon, both of which were partially recorded before removal. At both places, the work involved a substantial reduction in weight alongside an increase in the number of bells and the Turners re-used substantial portions of the old frames while also constructing new trusses alongside.
9.2 At Abingdon, the Turners seem to have built a new frame in 1764. However, they did reuse much of the timber of a previous frame (see 8.7) and it is just possible - although far from certain - that parts of the old frame were left partially intact.2 (In a note to the writer dated October 2005, Dr John Eisel observed that he had visited on two occasions and had been able to make an initial assessment of the Abingdon frame. He was "concerned to find out if the frame dated from 1764 - which it almost certainly does. Essentially it seemed to be of a single phase, although there may be reused elements, and it has two levels of sills. The cranked beam [or stepped head] on the inner side of the 9/tenor pit is interesting and quite rare.") This could be the case in the pits of the heavier bells and on the south and west sides of the tower which are generally of more substantial construction and have the appearance of seventeenth-century work.
9.3 Overall, however, the frame is of little interest apart from the instance of the stepped head (see 8.5). Otherwise it is a fairly typical double jack-braced frame of the period, 1764, with an entirely standard upper tier of 1885-6. This record should serve as a source of information for anyone who might in future be interested in knowing more about the old frame. It is not a frame that justifies preservation other than by record.
9.4 The original working notes and drawings from which this record has been compiled will be preserved in the writer's Historic Bellframe "Rescue Recording Project" archive. Copies of the report have been supplied for the parish archives and further copies will be distributed to the Council for the Care of Churches, the National Monuments Record Centre (English Heritage), the Diocesan Record Office and the Library of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers.
Christopher J. Pickford, FSA
Ref: RESCUE\REPORTS\Abingdon - report
28 July 2006 (7209 words)
2 In a note to the writer dated October 2005, Dr. John Eisel observed that he had visited on two occasions and had been able to make an initial assessment of the Abingdon frame. He was “concerned to find out if the frame dated from 1764 - which it almost certainly does. Essentially it seemed to be of a single phase, although there may be reused elements, and it has two levels of sills. The cranked beam [or stepped head] on the inner side of the 9/tenor pit is interesting, and quite rare.”
© Copyright 2006, Chris Pickford