“Here lies a Bellfounder, honest and true,
Until the Resurrection, named Purdue.”
In the West of England their place was filled by the Penningtons of Exeter, the Evanses of Chepstow, and the Bilbies of Chew-Stoke, Somerset. The Keenes of Bedford and Woodstock, John Palmer of Gloucester, and John Martin of Worcester, all did good work in their day, as did the Cliburys of Wellington, in Shropshire. Another important Midland firm was that of the Bagleys, of Chacomb, in Northamptonshire, whose foundry was opened in 1631, and flourished till the end of the eighteenth century; though in the latter period its owners became restless, and settled temporarily in London, Witney, and other places. In the North, York was again the chief bell-founding centre, and Samuel Smith and the Sellers were famous exponents of the art; in the East of England we have, besides Miles Graye, first the Brends of Norwich, then John Darbie of Ipswich, and Thomas Gardiner of Sudbury.
Several founders between 1560 and 1700 were mere journeymen, who went about from place to place, doing jobs where they could. Of such was Michael Darbie, of whom it is said, “one specimen of his casting seems to have been enough for a neighbourhood.” At Blewbury, in Berkshire, a local man attempted to recast a bell in 1825. He failed twice, but was then successful, and placed on his work the appropriate motto, Nil desperandum. Apart from this, it was not at all uncommon for bells to be cast on the spot, as were Great Tom of Lincoln and the great bell of Canterbury, or at some convenient intermediate place.
Running the Molten Metal.
Part of the Bell Founder’s Window in York Minster.
In 1684 a fresh start was given to the Gloucester foundry, then fallen on bad days, by Abraham Rudhall, perhaps the most successful founder England has known. He and his descendants cast altogether 4,521 bells down to 1830, and their fame spread all over the West of England, from Cornwall to Lancashire, and even over the seas. Most of the big rings of bells in the West Midlands are their work. The foundry finally came to an end in 1835, when the business was bought up by Mears of London.
In London itself bell-founding seems to have come almost to an end between 1530 and 1570. But about the latter year arose one Robert Mot, who set on foot what is now the oldest-established business of any kind in England. The foundry in the Whitechapel Road, now only a short distance removed from its original home, has always upheld its reputation throughout the three hundred years and more during which it has been continuously worked. Several of Mot’s bells still remain in London, and many others in Kent and Essex (Plate [15]). In the seventeenth century the foundry was in the hands of Anthony and James Bartlet, who cast many bells for Wren’s churches after the Great Fire. In the eighteenth, under Phelps, Lester, Pack, and Chapman, successively, its reputation gradually increased, and in 1783 began a dynasty of Mearses lasting down to 1870. The name is still preserved by the firm of Mears and Stainbank, though neither a Mears nor a Stainbank now owns a share in the business. An illustration of their bells is given in Plate [16].