LIKE A PHOENIX FROM THE ASHES
Long Melford Music Society dies and Melford Music is born.
You may have heard that Long Melford Music Society closed at the end of December 2007 after promoting music for 15 years.
Well, like the Phoenix arising from the ashes, a small group of die-hards have agreed to continue the Lunchtime Recitals to raise funds for a variety of projects. With permission to continue using the Melford Music logo and the strap line ‘Fine music in a Fine church’ we have artists booked for 18 recitals. They will start at the usual time and place, 1.10pm on Wednesday 14th May at Holy Trinity Church; entrance is FREE with a retiring collection taken in aid of this year’s project ‘The Restoration of the Bells at Holy Trinity Church’. Please come and support our first year with us and enjoy half an hour of music with light refreshments available as usual. We shall be producing a brochure which will contain the full year’s programme so if you are not already on our mailing list and would like to receive information please let us know - there is a card at the back of the church specifically for this purpose. We shall look forward to meeting you.
We also intend to continue the ‘Come and Sing’ event and this year we are supporting Holy Trinity Church Appeal who have invited John Rutter to come and do a Workshop on Saturday 27th September. Next Year we shall be performing Bach’s Christmas Oratorio on Saturday 10th October so all you singers please put Saturday 27th September 2008 and 10th October 2009 in your diaries.
Peter Dollimore organizer, Jilly Cooper creative manager, Patrick Kohler administration
The bells at Long Melford Church have been ringing out since mediaeval times and who knows, even before that! What we do know is that bells were installed in the tower of the “new” church built by John Clopton and friends at some time after 1484.
Unfortunately, this old tower was struck by lightning in 1710 and the top half of the tower collapsed bringing the bells down with it. It is thought that one of those original bells hangs on the top of the small mission church of St Catherine’s in the centre of the village.
Once the tower was rebuilt, new bells were installed. There is some doubt as to the age of the large oak frame that the new bells were mounted in, but it dates back at least to 1744, the same age as our oldest bells. The last time that major restoration was carried on the bells was in 1924 when the cracked 6th and 7th bells were recast and the 2nd bell recast because of poor tone.
For the last eighty-four years, only routine maintenance has been carried out, and the bells still swing on the same bearings as installed in 1924.
The old oak frame has been strengthened recently with metal cross bracing to extend its life, hopefully for a number of years, but much work is now needed to ensure the bells can also continue to ring.
As an example of the wear that occurs, the clapper (which is the swinging pendulum that hits the bell) slowly wears away the area where it strikes, so the bell has to be turned a quarter way round to even up the wear. Many other aspects of the bell's fixtures and fittings also need attention and this requires the bells to be removed from the tower and transported to the bell founders for repair before being refitted.
All this work will require the bells to fall silent for up to three months and will cost in the region of £35,000. We also hope that no further problems are found during the restoration that would cause these costs to escalate!
This restoration will enable the bells of Holy Trinity to ring out for many years to come.
Correspondence for New Melford Music should be addressed to :
Mrs Jilly Cooper
7 The Columbines,
Cavendish
Sudbury
CO10 8AB
Tel: 01787 281836
jcooper01@toucansurf.com
