A short report on the bell at St Augustine’s Honor Oak April 2024

Hans Rashbrook

Bellringer at St Mary’s Hendon & St Margaret Pattens

I viewed and inspected the bell on 20th April 2024, taking these photos, and applying some oil to the bearings and to the pulley guiding the bell rope through the belfry floor.

The bell was cast at the Gillett & Johnston Bell foundry in Croydon around 1925.

The bell Inscription reads:

GILLETT & JOHNSTON. CROYDON. 1925.

TO THE GLORY OF GOD

AND IN MEMORY OF

PERCY WHITE COLLARD. M.A.

VICAR OF THIS PARISH 1889 - 1925

AND OF FANNY. HIS WIFE.

O COME. ALL YE FAITHFUL.

The rope is linked to a bound wire cable that is attached to one end of the bell’s half wheel. My test-pulling of the bell rope felt rather springy but I was able to chime the bell successfully with minimal swing and just a few tugs of the rope were required for the bell’s clapper to swing and strike it continually on one side.

As the wheel currently has sections missing on the opposite side from the rope’s attachment (see photos) the rope cannot currently be guided along that broken side. I therefore recommend no harder pulling of the rope/swinging of the bell until the detached pieces are reapplied or replaced on the wheel.

Further information on the Gillett & Johnson Foundry and bells it has cast, is available online including this link.

http://www.towerbells.org/data/IXfoundryGillettJohnston.html

Please see report attached for more photographs.