NAGCR - Progress on Rochester's Bells

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The shipping container arrived on August 6. We opened it just to look, and were thrilled to see “Julian” in plain sight. The other bells were deeper inside, some of them in crates. By last Friday (August 21), the steel frame had been assembled in the tower, and the five little bells (“Trudy”, “Christian”, “Susan”, “Patricia”, and “Woody”) had been uncrated, hoisted up into the tower, and installed into the frame. Yesterday when we arrived at the church, bells #6–9 (“Geddes”, “Julian”, “Frederick", and “Pete”) were lined up on the sidewalk outside the ringing room door, and bell #10, “Martin”, was inside the ringing room on the ground floor. Within a couple of hours all five of them had been hoisted up into the bell chamber in the tower.

The English bellhanger is arriving next Monday evening, and will start the final phases of the installation on Tuesday. Things have been going so smoothly so far, and the workmen have done such an excellent job, that we are hoping that we can actually pull the ropes and ring the bells in less than two weeks.

Plans for the dedication ceremony are as yet unformed. It certainly won’t be in September, but October or November seem quite possible. I will let you know what to expect as soon as I know myself.

Here are some photos. You would hardly believe how beautiful these bells are!

1/ August 13: A bell on the forklift.

2/ August 21: Bell #4, “Patricia”, being hoisted up into the bell chamber.

3/ August 21: Bell #2, “Christian”, being hoisted.

4/ August 21: Bells #2, 3, 4, and 5 (“Christian”, the nearest, “Susan”, “Patricia”, and “Woody”, the farthest) in place in the bell chamber.

5/ August 21: Bell #1, “Trudy”, the smallest or treble bell, in place in the bell chamber. The contractor, Bill Farmer, is flanked by the workmen, Dave and Dave.

6/ August 26: Bells #6, 7, 8, and 9 (“Geddes”, “Julian”, “Frederick”, and “Pete”) outside the ringing room door, awaiting being hoisted.

7/ August 26: Chris Haller and Sue DeVuyst with the four bells named above.

8/ August 26: Bell #10, “Martin”, the largest or tenor bell, being hoisted.

9/ August 27: With everything up in the bell chamber, the hole in the ceiling has been closed.