During the week leading up to Saturday 8^th November, the Ixworth church bells were returned from the Bell Hangers’ workshops, Whites of Appleton. The bells have been completely overhauled and have received new clappers, headstocks, bearings, stays and wheels. The new headstocks and all the ironwork on the bell frame bears the bell hangers’ signature colour, blue.

The craftsmanship that has gone into the new bell wheels is remarkable, such attention to detail is very reassuring to see. This is the first time that the bell frame has held eight bells, and they look very handsome together. The new wheels so well defined against the blue headstocks with the bells hanging as if dutifully awaiting their ringers.

The bell frame was replaced by George Bullock in 1882, he was a miller at Ixworth watermill and was also a bell hanger. When he replaced the frame, he had the vision that Ixworth might one day have eight bells. In 1553, Ixworth was described as having ‘five great bells’ and between 1681 to 1683 a sixth bell was acquired. The bell was hung in 1684.

A while before the restoration commenced, we were saddened by the loss of one of Ixworth’s memorable ringers, Lenny Sharpe. We are very grateful to the generous foresight of Lenny’s will that enabled us to commission the casting of two new treble bells at Whitechapel in November 2007. These bells have now assumed the previously vacant bell pits. These magnificent new bells proudly announce ‘ IN MEMORIUM TO LEONARD S SHARPE’. We were very pleased to be visited by Lenny Sharpe’s brother Michael and his wife during the week following receipt of the bells.

During the week following the return of the bells, Graham the bell hanger was very busy on the Monday and Tuesday fitting bearing plates and guiding the volunteer work.

On Tuesday. The primary schoolchildren came and had a great time doing rubbings of the bells. They loved it!

On Thursday and Friday, the bells were re-hung in the church tower.

We are very grateful to the people of Ixworth and the area. We are also grateful to the Heritage Lottery fund for our grant. Thank you all, we are nearing completion.

Friday 2^nd November 2007, a mild and pleasant day and a significant day for the restoration of Ixworth church bells. On completion of restoration, the current six bells will become eight and, today, the additional bells are to be cast.

Four members of the ringing team were invited to Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London to view the casting of the bells. I telephoned the foundry during the morning of our visit to ensure that all is still as planned, I expected to hear a rushed voice shouting above an industrious sounding accompaniment but instead spoke to a calm and pleasant receptionist who confirmed that the foundry are looking forward to seeing us during the afternoon.

We set off, the keen autumn sun on the windscreen. The traffic got thicker as we merged with the M11 and on to the metropolis. We arrived a Redbridge and parked, the guy at the car park as polite and helpful as always. Into Redbridge Underground station and on to ‘the tube’. We were still a little early so we elected to go on to Oxford Circus, where we had some lunch.

We eagerly chatted over lunch, in anticipation of the afternoon’s visit and at the thought of the restoration during 2008. We didn’t hang around long, sandwiches and coffees finished, we dutifully marched back to the underground and on to Mile End, change onto the District line and to Aldgate East. Nearly there. It took some time to get orientated but soon found Whitechapel Bell Foundry to be a classic looking shop front that has escaped the sanitization of our times. The shop doorsteps flanked by great oval topped nine pane windows, gold capital letters on the shop sign proudly proclaiming CHURCH BELL FOUNDRY.

In through the shop door, a ‘ting’ as the door opened, into a room of paneled cupboards and glass fronted displays. The hundreds of years of the foundry represented by all sorts of artifacts. We were greeted by our guide, clearly he had done this routine a few times before and confidently talked us through the agenda.

Soon enough we were into the foundry proper, a large and tall room with a sandy floor and a large furnace at the opposite end. An enormous steel beam sat above, this was on rails along each side of the workshop. Everything about the equipment smacked of intense heat and heavy loads.

Our guide demonstrated a sample of the bell mould material, called ‘loam’, a material that has been used for time immemorial, this is produced by mixing sand, hay, manure and water. Loam is particularly good at retaining shape when the bell metal is added, this at temperatures over 1000°C or 1830°F.

The guys in the workshop were ready, the bell metal (typically 23% tin and 77% copper) poured down a gully to a waiting vessel, orange like the setting sun. The flow stopped and the vessel was moved to clear debris from the surface of the molten metal. The workshop equipment had a patina that could only be achieved from exposure to such temperatures, the hopper that received the debris appeared to have a fossilized gnarling brought about by a thousand uses.

The first recipient was an Ixworth bell, we watched in silent amazement as the guys conducted the operation with a professional nonchalance. Smoke rose from the outer case of the mould as the temperature rose, one or two small methane flames rose from holes in the case, this was from the loam. Great plumes of smoke rose into the ceiling void and the workshop was filled with a smell not entirely unlike bonfire smoke.

A total of six bells were completed in this operation, two for Ixworth, two ‘stock bells’ for the foundry and two for St. Vincent’s in the Leyward Islands.

It was time for the surplus metal to be poured back into moulds for reuse at a later date and we had to leave the workshop for safety sake.

In the yard we were shown bells that had been cast and awaited tuning, this process can take at least a day per bell. Off of the yard and through another door, the tuning bay centered around a jig that holds the bell during tuning. During this process, the bell is rotated and slivers of the bell metal are removed from the inside of the bell. Next to the jig, two cases held a wide selection of tuning forks typical of the range usually required. On a shelf to one side, larger tuning forks stood like chefs implements. Next them stood an almighty device that is sometimes required to tune larger bells. This device was of a respectable age. We were told that the foundry recently recast a bell that was originally cast by the foundry in the nineteenth century, this device was used to tune the original bell and tune the recast bell too!

Back into the yard, the evening setting in and the light fading, the guys stood in the evening air, apparently grateful of the opportunity to cool down after the parched conditions of the workshop. Another guy passed through the workshop, carrying his motorcycle crash helmet, another day is done for him, it’s Friday and he’s off soon to weave his way home through the London traffic.

We passed back through the shop and into the street, expressing our grateful appreciation as we departed, into the street where the traffic rushed. We nipped over the road to share the events of the day over a much needed coffee at Starbucks.

Back into the tube, and change at Mile End for Redbridge, it was only just possible to step onto the carriage, as the door closed I could feel it brush the back of my head. Steadily, as we stopped at stations, the masses thinned out. At Redbridge, darkness greeted outside of the station, we strolled back to the car to find it exactly as it was left. I always fear that something awful might have happened to it, but thankfully I am always wrong. As we joined the road from the car park, the roundabout was like an ants nest with hundreds of cars belting around. Once onto the motorway, I felt like we were halfway home.

Dropping off the others on the way, it’s always great to get back to the village and step out into the still night air. The clock chimes eight as I walk up the lane and I imagine how the new bells, fitted in with the restored current bells, will be so remarkable and will be a testament to the generosity of all who have so kindly donated towards the restoration. The Ixworth bells are so badly in need of restoration and now this has been possible. 2008 will see the restoration commence. Ixworth is well placed to be an eight-bell tower and will be able to be enjoyed for hundreds of years to come. In 1882, George Bullock, a miller at the Ixworth watermill and church bell hanger, fitted the current bell frame with the intention of there being two extra bells at one point in the future. One hundred and twenty five years later, this ambition is being achieved.

NB: no funds were used to support this excursion.

Registered Charity N° 1119200  

Having met the fundraising target* of £58,000 in September 2007, work in the tower started in April 2008. A great deal of money was saved by undertaking the removal of the bells and preparatory work ourselves. Lots of volunteer help was freely given, for which we are very grateful, and special thanks are due to to Chris Nunn for his undying help and enthusiasm. He guided us through all of the work and has dedicated a remarkable amount of time to meticulously completing essential work.