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A NEW VOICE FOR ST MARY’S
St Mary’s Church has stood proudly in the centre of Moseley village for centuries, its tower visible to all.
Since 1991, its bells have been rung on Sundays and on other special occasions. Recently the bell ringers and the Church have agreed that, because of the deterioration of the bells - the dangerous state of their fittings, coupled with the dreadful sound they make (being made of steel rather than bell-metal) - it is time to replace them with traditional bells. As a consequence an Appeal is being launched to raise £140,000 to finance the buying and installation of ten bells.
For Moseley, new traditional bells would be lighter, perfectly tuned, and would thus sound sweeter. New bells would be easier to learn on; a great improvement on the existing steel bells.
The tower at the moment contains eight steel bells, originally hung at St Marie’s, Sheffield, where they were replaced with traditional bells after only 12 years of service. The steel bells were sold to a local Moseley business man who presented them to St Mary’s in 1874.
In 1909 the bells fell silent. The outcome of inspections carried out in 1979 and 1989 was that the bells and frame were unsafe and should be scrapped. With little prospect, at the time, of replacing the bells, bell ringers and members of the Parish decided to perform a limited restoration. The bells were rung for the first time in 82 years on Easter Sunday, 1991. Since then, a band of ringers has been formed and the bells rung regularly. However, it has become more and more obvious that the bells need replacing. Traditionally, bells have always been cast using a copper and tin mix known as bell-metal. Casting in steel was a short lived cheap experiment as the bells were of inferior tone and rusted. Of the twenty or so complete rings of steel bells, most have since been replaced with traditional bells. When St Mary’s bells were restored in 1991, it was only envisaged they would last for about three years. Not only are the bells substandard, but the fittings have now deteriorated to a state well beyond repair, making the bells very difficult for ringers to handle, or for new ringers to be taught. Last year, during ringing, the tenor bell (the heaviest) fell from its frame and landed on the floor of the bell chamber! It is still there, and rather than let things deteriorate further, donating the steel bells to a local museum or one near to where they were cast would be the best means of preservation.
Moseley prides itself on being a village in a great English city. What is more quintessentially English than the sound of church bells? Please help in any way you can to bring a new voice to St.Mary’s.
Further details at: www.stmarysbells.org
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Birmingham Moseley Lions Club
Lions Clubs are an international network of men and women who work together to answer the needs that challenge communities across the world.
We cover all costs from our own dues, ensuring that all donated funds go to the causes. Transparency and accountability operate at every level; in fact, The Financial Times has ranked Lions Clubs International Foundation the “best among non-government organisations worldwide with which to work”.
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Moseley Community Development Trust (Moseley CDT)
Moseley Community Development Trust is an independent charity and company limited by guarantee, founded in 2001 by Moseley Society and the Central Moseley Neighbourhood Forum* with help from the Moseley and District Churches Housing Association. (nb. Central Moseley Neighbourhood Forum has since been renamed as Moseley Forum)
The aim of Moseley Community Development Trust is to lead the regeneration of the neighbourhood through social, economic and environmental projects for Moseley's diverse communities. It also aims to be financially sustainable.
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