Church Bells
It was while we were filming at the Black Sheep brewery in Masham for A Beer - for the Grown-Ups that we heard about the plan to restore the local bells, and immediately we knew that this was a must-do Magic of Making.
The film starts at the Whitechapel bell foundry. This world famous factory is in the Guiness Book Of Records as being the oldest manufacturing company in Britain. It was established in 1570 and has survived through the reigns of 27 monarchs. It has cast many famous bells, such as the great bell of Montreal Cathedral, the bells of Westminster Abbey, and 'Great Tom' of Lincoln Cathedral - a bell so loud that it can be heard over thirteen miles away!
In the the film you will hear that as well as casting the Liberty Bell of Philadelphia (1752), the Whitechapel bell foundry also cast Big Ben (1858). The bells we see being cast in the Magic of Making were left to cool over the weekend, but Big Ben was so big that a full twenty days were required before the 13-ton bell could be 'broken out' of its clay mold - and even then it was still hot. The foundry had specified that the clapper should weigh no more than a quarter of a ton, but a half-ton clapper was installed, and after only a couple of weeks the bell started cracking up. A smaller clapper was fitted and the bell turned through 45 degrees to prevent the cracks from getting worse. The result is the unique sound that we all know today, but a kind of tone that the trained ear of the bell ringer will cringe at!
The five new bells in the film were paid for with the help of the nearby Black Sheep Brewery, and installed into St Mary's in Masham in good time to ring in the millenium. They joined five older bells, themselves cast in 1766, and the new bells were specially tuned to match the pitch and timbre of their older sisters. The bell wheels were made by a local carpenter, and while they were being filmed for the closing sequence of the film, our cameraman was sent almost completely deaf. In fact, the sound was so loud that our microphone was overloaded and the resulting recording was unusable. We had to cheat the soundtrack with the help of the BBC sound effects department!
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Production Notes
Locations:
Whitechapel Bell Foundry, London;
St Mary's Church, Masham, N Yorkshire.