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The first private ring at Stoulton was a ring of six hung in the rafters
of Arthur Jopp's Church Lane home. They were collected over a period of
fourteen years, tuned by Taylors and hung in 1960 using bicycle wheels
and with a simple chiming apparatus. These were augmented to eight in
1970 by adding a treble and tenor and replacing the old fourth.
In 1976 these bells were replaced by a set of ten bells from the University
of Sydney Carillon cast in 1927 by Taylors. At that time it was common
practice to install duplicate pairs of the smaller bells of a carillon
to be used simultaneously to give more power to the higher notes. Gradually
some of these installations have had their smaller pairs of bells replaced
by single, larger bells capable of generating sufficient volume on their
own. (Eleven bells from the other half of this set were purchased by Kinoulton
in Nottinghamshire and added to another 1927 Taylor bell, which was originally
part of the Bellfoundry Campanile, to form a ring of twelve. So far only
the back six bells only hung for ringing so far. The twelve bells weigh
0.0.16, 0.0.19, 0.0.19, 0.0.20, 0.0.27, 0.1.4, 0.1.13, 0.1.24, 0.2.17
(Bellfoundry bell), 0.2.27, 1.0.18, 1.2.11 in A). They were augmented
to twelve in 1984 using two bells cast by Mr. Jopp himself. Subsequently,
the fourth has been replaced by another Jopp bell, since the previous
bell was rather light at 14lb. The ringing chamber is at ground floor
level, and ringing is strictly by invitation only.
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