Documentary about the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire and the Asthall bell part1

this is the story about the a stall bells recently rehung in the Church of some Nicholas the ancient and tranquil village of a stall with its 25 houses church built in the 1100 s in the may time pub has changed little since the first bells were hung in the 15th century in their newly built tower on earlier foundations in the Roman settlement which grew up where a Qin Street forded the river wind rush to join the Roman fortress towns of Cirencester and Vista the original ring of three medieval bells has been hanging in the tower for some 600 years but sadly the old oak frame started to deteriorate some 50 years ago and was beginning to affect structure integrity of the tower itself so the full circle ringing of the bells had to be abandoned and gradually the equipment fell into a bad state repair the parochial Church council decided it was time to restore the bells and commenced the huge task of raising the 65,000 pounds required drawing up in st. Cloud's obtaining faculty positions from the diocese the missionary architect L Hanna builder and foundry to produce an Augmented ring of six bells and replace the old wooden frame with a steel but and my Masami the Sonics are over there just calipers for measuring yeah off the drawings because the drawings wouldn't have gods on them now just you just basically take the drawing the drawing would be to scale yes that um I think they've been here cuz they are behind those edge beams I broke them they've been up here for 500-600 view this is the retro very easy stage bring them back out through the turret head forwards all the way down to pass running down the pass and then we make a ramp to get them from the step into the back of the van well we're taking out the three existing bottles and they're going to be taken away and loaded up the van and retune and three more new ones will be added to the public via an ice cream six in order to save over 4,000 pounds of labour costs the work called upon volunteer labor under the foreman ship of Nicholson engineering of Bridgeport the Bell hanger in August the heavy work began assisted by the birth of Bell captain Nigel Harrison churchwarden and project director Jeremy Holland and robin Leach brazilian consultant we then set about lowering the bells one by one and the heavy oak Timbers of the old Bell frame these pipe piece a hot and dirty job require heavy lifting equipment chain blocks tackles pulling and cursing it was also rumored that some 600 years worth of bird droppings had to be removed in the process the most difficult part of well we'll probably be yet to come trying to get the new frame the new steel frame going to be put in actually fitting the frame in in the tower because however carefully you measure it all the walls are never straight and the rod bits and pieces which well get in the way no doubt in there it's done quite well I think it's actually comfortable come to pieces a lot quicker and easier muscle for boys it's one why water very fine fine tell about whether the Bell frame itself was misty and he said it couldn't be because that was Stephanie Victoria yeah doesn't explain how maybe you will build hang on a Victorian frame and that's something happen to the frame even then usually every hundred years change twenty years to Bell Friends of War I and yet I go through what we're doing yeah back with yeah instead of steel because in another hundred years con someone's gonna look out and think well I know they get 14th century friar 14th century bowels in a 2000 frame yeah right yeah so it's it's a faculty I would suggest yeah sure that's gonna be long boards hey man we have we have secret weapons we have the water bombs and we have Z water pistols and we have Z C smoker bombs which it may or may not be our sinking today but uh apart from that we have the bread various local fundraising projects added to the fund and to the 20,000 pounds raised by local parishioners most Nate the raft race I'm smiling at swim bro Daniel in Rochester this wasn't a narration over number one the way the French continue Oh yeah the onion man I am an illegal yes I have no papers the on will Rosie Taylor present owner of Astro minor was kind enough to offer her alternative will finish and the following fate tug ofwar sack races and other position one of the suits and was persuaded to present the prizes to Lauren massive cuts oh that's the bells have been delivered into the foundry by about hang-up license right he's already company cannon loops off the top of the smallest of the three bells which if it's the youngest Bell that's the last well and drill to send a hole to clear out any cast in iron stable that was in the Bell the two very old bells have been left with their cannons on these flutes on the top we call them cannon loops we think probably because Bell foundries used to make bells and in terms of war they made cannon and kin of these ships have got loops on so that the Rope tackles can be used to detect the recoil and to move them about so I think that's why these get called cannon loops and you reckon they're about early 15th century does what they say yes yes holidays once you get the very early bells the inscription doesn't have a date in it so you have to start working from the shape of the bell the style of the lettering the style of the cannons and come to an idea and those although most of the girls are enlisted the larger the two bells is going to be tuned but the smaller of the two bells is not going to be too so we're retaining as much history as we can while making the peel sound correct it's called low molding because we're using a cereal no which is a traditional material at the Whitechapel foundry the fine German have the molten bell metal a bronze made of copper and tin ready for pouring into the molds lined with a special loan made from clay sand goats hair and horse manure both Bell metal and Bell mold compositions have been in use since the Middle Ages and in spite of all the advances in modern metallurgic technology have not been able to be improved once the bells were cast they were tuned upside-down by slicing small slivers from the inside with a vertical Bell lathe to achieve the desired note to fit the required chromatic scale the next thing for there many ways to pour the surface method onion got praise when they finished throwing sounded out high under Nick Wilson managing director of Nicholson engineering limited and this is our works in pre bought in Dorset and this behind me is the completed ring of six bells for hostel in Oxfordshire originally three bells of which two were medieval bells cast at Woking them in about 1450 we think and that's these two bells which are closest to me here this is the 10 yep yes it is yeah this is the Tanner Bell that's about 600 wait yes it's just a shade over six under weight as it now is having been tuned right and and we've then move on to the as the Theon the - no that's the number five five that's number five same Bell founder still a medieval Bell this one's about 500 wait wait just just slightly under in fact of course all the fittings that we see all the framework is all brand new it's only the bells themselves there's three largest bells which are which are your original components if you write the original headstocks were wood that was yeah they're RL elm yeah yeah I was these are all fabricated steel steel yes yeah with presumably modern bearings oh yes yes they're sealed bearings they all need maintaining about every 25 years yeah just as our we hope we hope yeah yeah and if we wander around this way then we can have a young key the other you know the ones this is the smallest of your original three bells the register daily bill doesn't that's the price right that's the tailor Bell how does it sound can we have a Yelp you can yeah it seemed really very well indeed we'd be very pleased with that bell sounds great now we come out to the the first of the new bells to cast in Whitechapel that's right now this is the bell that was given by the Duchess of Devonshire and so this is the Mitford bell if you lie indeed yes and weighs just about 400 weight these two bells are about the same size in fact and so this Bell is a modern harmonically tuned Bell but the the tonal quality is really indistinguishable from the tuned literally yeah so so we're really very pleased with the match in series worked out extremely well it's the same mixture of of metals oh yeah yes they're proportion it hasn't really changed I mean the to medieval bells are what 500 years old or so and if you were to analyze the metal from them it wouldn't have changed it's 77 percent copper 23 percent 10 23 percent 10 and 70 percent copper yeah so it is real yes and it's the same proportion if it's too if it's more than that then you get a different tonality or yeah too brittle mortar yes Mort inmates it brittle right and bridges are more harsher sound right so the molds that are the the casting was made round yeah that's another primitive mix isn't it they'd say no it's a very primitive makes yes it's a mixture in whitechapel's case of of London clay sand goat hair under and horse down horse does always kalman you and that's no no it's horse dung the goat here act as a acts as a binding in the mixture really holds it all together that the the horse town actually makes the mould gas permeable and believe it or not so it stops the casting cracking I think that I think I think that's basically it has explained to us at Whitechapel what yeah yeah it's a bit difficult to heat is apprehended is a primitive mixture though yeah funny yeah goats hair and laws done yeah yes Noel and that would have applied equally to the l3 bow to the old three girls and they still haven't here change the casting mix or the or the molding mix since 15 not 70s up he was on the air started making Whitechapel yeah yes yes quite an artist he made evil ones from Woking him a lot earlier much earlier yeah yeah that's three two hundred years old yeah so if we move all around we've got another two bells around here this is the bell given by the Powell's this is the second of the ring right this is in the Leonard da and it happy you can let us know a little bit about mr. dark yes Leonard oak was my stepfather who died in 2004 and um when the appeal for the bells came round we wanted to do something in his memory and he discovered the Windrush valley in the 1960s and visited it for some forty years and loved coming to a store Leslie and he loved the churches and he loved music and I say we thought a church bell would be perfect way to commemorate him the third bell for all the lightest as small as well er small as one has inscribed with Psalm 95 verse 1 oh come let us sing unto the Lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation indeed it hope their joyful noises no mater I think they can be a fairly joyful pair in a very musical differential a sounds well we're really good we're looking great we've got a very good splice between the new and the old and that's that's the key to it really we were invited to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire to speak to Deborah the Duchess of Devonshire now the Dowager Duchess in her sitting-room debo is fondly appreciated in a stolen swim ring and donated one of the bells in memory of her five sisters and brother Tom she's the last surviving member of her famous and talented family the Mitford's we thought we might learn more about her connections to a stall her famous sisters the 1920s and her twin passions for Elvis Presley and horse-racing I just like to thank you your grace very much for inviting us to Chatsworth it's a wonderful experience for us to be up here and to see what you've done over the last 40 something years and to thank you for donating the bell the famous bell which is inscribed by yourself with all the names of your your brother and five sisters wasn't it which is going to be hung in a stall next month well it's a great pleasure for me to be able to do that because it's it's a kind of a link in a way between my family and ask for which is which is love with me but what do you remember about that pier the 19 19 to 26 period when you were living in a stall well no I wasn't quite born in that well I was born in on to the next dance I was only six when we left right and I have a lot of memories of it probably some some through my sisters that you know when you here's a lot about a place you begin to think that that exactly the do remember it but anyway they were very happy there I think my parents were very happy there and as far as I remember I certainly was yes when you when you moved to swing Brooke and Nancy and Decca started writing their books they were referring presumably to a store but the famous cupboard upstairs which you used as a an HQ for ohms and revin and acaba yes yunsik oh it wherever we were we used to use the linen cupboard because it was the only warm place in the house according to our sisters right but just to go back to a store for a moment why my elder sisters and my brother loved it so much is it that building that the end of Astral Manor which was called the barn then I suppose was it was a bar no doubt of my father made it into a room with some bedrooms above but that was theirs they were complete two separate was that where the boarding is now yes it's not called a ballroom but it was the barman okay and that's where the piano was yes and that's where they were able to lead those separate lives nobody heard nobody bothered you know they'd really were able to do what they wanted and they never had that to turn brook yes also they had my grandfather's library there and that is where I'm sure that my sisters my elder sisters really became so interested in literature and all the things that they were interested yes cuz that's that's the fascinating thing about your whole family is how how all of them became so literary and so famous well it was that was very hard oh yeah there was a always amazes me but but the fact that they were literary identikit really surprising because both my grandfather's were writers my father thought it was not but but it it was in the blood as a trap yes that's right because uh me when you go through that book by Mary Lovell do you approve of that one yes I believe it's very good I must tell him that I haven't read it read it from cover to cover because I felt I know the story yes I thought that she'd story hid it but I love Mary Louisville and I think she did a fantastic job yes I I thought it was most the most amazing book and what other family of that era could possibly have produced so much talent was was his anything to do with education do you think well lack of it I think lack of it yeah because they accepting I must also tell assertive people younger than myself don't grab as it wasn't a bit unusual not to go to school then it was not unusual it was not unusual a lot of families had a governess at home or in the boys used to go to schools up there and my brother did he'd followed the usual route but yes my sister's not and my father was very much against educating go well girls going to school it just felt a little weird and I think he had a point yes sir all right but they didn't turn out so bad because it they all had this wonderful independence of mind all your sisters they seemed to somehow anyone became a communist another one became a fascist and they wrote about it and achieved such amazing notoriety Fame whatever it's yes for one family yes they were very varied but the only one who wasn't in the world were told not interested in politics myself and my sister Pam yes from the bit interested don't see it don't hear much about her Pam she was wonderful yes shivers ooh she was unique she was a marvelous cook well God know all those things well there's a human not interested in politics or London life of any sort when you open the swim Brook Cricket Club which was most appreciated that sir is when I first saw you I'm a great fan that day that was wasn't it one at the pavilion um you mentioned that that the bedroom you occupied in in the cottage at Swinburne would probably not even be given planning mission to be used as a bedroom nowadays it wouldn't it wouldn't fill the building regulations not at all but it was a tiny then the contrast from moving from there to here after you got married must have been quite extraordinary yes I didn't move here for a long time but but but nevertheless I suppose it was but you never forget where you were a child doing it funny where it's still home as you know we're putting these six bells into the tower at a store where there were three before I know and the three were quite close to the Elizabethan manner that we were living in a test or did the bells affect you much in those days yeah I can trouble having your very little child those things just a part of life in particular notice of whether you want to notice the churchyard because the the we were always fascinated by the funerals you can imagine and we weren't supposed to look right right but of course we did because it was so close we were nearly in the churchyard yes of course it overlooked it have you met Rosie Taylor who now owns owns the Opera hmm yes great asset doesn't she oh she certainly spent a lot of time and trouble on the on the gardens and once I was done my family were very very happy at a store yes for all the reasons we've said first of all the beauty of the place and the nicest of all the people round about and then the luck of the older ones having the bomb to do what they were watered in it's a price they never had again at swim Brook and they were always I suppose really looking for a row around which they never had right yes because the impression I get from Mary Mary levels book is that but all the rest of the family when they moved to swim drop hated it but you loved it I loved it yes because I loved the ponies and I loved daughter hunting none of the woods I loved or every inch bit round that yes and they wrote but I was very still a child you see a young child and they were all getting grown up and they wanted a different sort of life and they wanted to go to London and yes different museums so you were more or less abandoned at Twinbrook house well being my neck sister up Jessica who was two years older than that for timber so when I was 16 in ella broke my heart when episode I adored it so did you you have to sell the house but for financial reasons and or was it less my father boys sitting house it for financial business get quite quite a gambler you must have been quite a - gambler but he was he wasn't very lucky with with his things that he did and he we used to letters and my mother used to let the houses yes you know obviously if we could afford to live that way we let them and went to a cottage either at some brook or another one we had at Habbakuk and then you also used to rent houses in London for the season and things like that was that a was that something that was normally done in those days that it normally it wasn't out a bit everything was geared to May June and July and it was all to do with the houses of parliament I see sitting cuz they often didn't sit in the autumn so anyone who was to do with politics in any way had to be in London in the summer months and Anderson art it what's called the season that was easy right then they all sort of sort of ways to sweat away all the winter making a nice garden and then they really built four miles your current living room go and live in London did life was so different then the Parliament was was not an everyday job like it is not what are the context you still have in in return a store well I have cousins living down there really which is always a pleasure to go and see and friends roundabout as well but it's the actual place it's a country and the woods and there that Valley it's just been great value is magic isn't it yeah I think so once we hang the bells in the church tower yeah um the normal process I gather is that we have a dedication ceremony yes and and the bishop dedicates the bells and they're there rung ceremoniously and having it on anybody that has donated to all the bells like yourself would then be invited to the service would you would you like to come down but but very grateful very invited I've loved counties in february/march would that be convenient I hope so just depends on on dates and things I'm sure but if that's convenient we only have two dedicated bells one one from yourself and another from a couple who live in a stall and the Powell's Nick and Cecilia Powell oh yeah who donated a bell in memory of stepfather and so obviously we must try and get the two of you together well that would be logically on the dedication ceremony I just hope that'll come off the ground well thank you your grace for inviting us up here to to Chatsworth it's been a wonderful experience to see how you live up here and what you've done over the last 50 years to make this probably one of the most famous stately homes in the in the country oh thank thank you for coming it's a pleasure - pleasure anything to do with a slalom boats are always a great interest

Channel: Dominic Holland DOP

Views: 115,013

Keywords: Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, Duchess of Devonshire

Id: RONkGdcCjVs

Length: 27min 49sec (1669 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 19 2012