Report on the St Helen Bellframe (1764-2006): Sources

Report on the St Helen Bell Frame (1764-2006)

SOURCES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Published works

Advertisement of opening in Oxford Gazette, and Reading Mercury, Monday 4 June 1764 (from the Cyril Wratten collection in the CCCBR Library)
Catalogue: "A List of the Peals of Bells hung by Samuel & Robert Turner Bell-Hangers to any Part of England in White-Chapel London", c.1771
Catalogue: "A Catalogue of Church-Clocks and Chimes, made by Tho. Steight, and his son, John Steight, now of Pershore, in Worcestershire, Clock Maker, from the Year 1699 to the Year 1752" [British Library 1887.a.9(15)]
Elliott, John and Pritchard, John (eds) George Edmund Street: A Victorian Architect in Berkshire (Reading) 1998, p.83
Elliott, John and Pritchard, John (eds) Henry Woodyer: Gentleman Architect (Reading) 2002, esp. p.128
Hutton, Graham and Smith, Edwin English Parish Churches (1952) p.51 pl. 149
Jenkins, Simon England's Thousand Best Churches (1999) p.532
Litten, Julian - article "Julian Litten looks at … St. Helen, Abingdon, Berkshire" in Ringing World 3 September 2004 p.865
Obituary for Edgar Humfrey in Ringing World 28 December 1956 p.828
Pevsner, Nikolaus "Berkshire" in the Buildings of England series (Penguin, 1966) pp.51-3
Pickford, Chris Bellframes (1993)
Report of rededication after rehanging in Ringing World 12 January 1962
Reports of current restoration (from Mark Walker, project manager) in Ringing World 26 August 2005 p.832, 3 March 2006 p.224 and 21 July 2006 p.708
Sharpe, Frederick The Church Bells of Berkshire (reprinted 1970/71) esp. pp.4-5, 339

Unpublished and website material

Abingdon bell restoration project website at http://www.abingdonbells.org.uk/progress.htm (superceeded) (Martin Crick, tower captain)
Canon Felstead's list of all the known peals rung at St.Helen's, Abingdon, from 1886 to 2005 (155 in all) - at http://ringing.org/main/pages/felstead-peals?tower=16
Incorporated Church Building Society (ICBS) file on St.Helen's Abingdon, 1869-1873, including correspondence and plans for Woodyer's restoration (Lambeth Palace Library ref: ICBS 7105 - via http://www.churchplansonline.org/
JBKS Architects, Specification and plans for building work for new bell installation, November 2004
Letter from Dr. John C. Eisel to Chris Pickford, October 2005, giving information and observations on the bellframe
Whitechapel Bell Foundry records including "Peals Book" entry of 1764 and daybook entry 3 March 1886
Whites of Appleton website - information and updates on the Abingdon restoration scheme etc - at http://www.whitesbellhangers.co.uk/projects.html

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to the ringers and PCC for giving me the opportunity to study and record this frame, and in particular to Mark Walker (the Project Manager) and Martin Crick (Tower Captain) for their help and for the extra information they have kindly provided. Graham Pledger of English Heritage advised on the level of recording required. The church architects, JBKS Architects of The Old Coach House, Adwell, kindly allowed the use of their survey drawings of the tower as the basis for this study. Information has also been provided by Dr. John Eisel, the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, Andrew Nicholson and by Whites of Appleton.