Center Meeting House

We are very fortunate to have such a wonderful bell in the Center Meeting House bell tower. Who would have guessed that even a bell has a story that is well worth telling?

In 1860, in Sheffield, England, a 30-inch diameter bell was cast by the Naylor Vickers Company. This bell somehow made its way to Grantham, New Hampshire and, in 1892, John Hay and his wife acquired this bell and donated it to Newbury’s Center Meeting House during a restoration effort they strongly supported.

A Naylor Vickers (NV) advertisement of that year states the bells “have a very pure melodious sound, peculiar to cast steel; and as the elasticity of this material seems to produce more powerful vibrations, their sound penetrates to a greater distance.” But at the time, the wisdom of casting bells of steel was being questioned, and one observer of the time, Alfred Cocks, stated that “steel bells are in my humble opinion an abomination which ought to be prohibited by Act of Parliament.” Cocks’ statement was due to steel bells succumbing to rust and pollution and thereby going out of tune, which added to the chorus of those who made similar disparaging remarks. (Part of our restoration will be to investigate whether our bell still chimes in tune.)

Steel bells did have their place. A noted bell historian, Rev. David L. Cawley, summarized the benefits of steel over bronze: “Their great attraction was of course their relative cheapness, and their comparative lightness despite their size.” In 1864 a 48-inch diameter bronze bell that sounded the musical note E would weigh 2200 pounds and cost £177, which today would amount to over $17,000. A steel bell of the same diameter and note would weigh 1500 pounds and cost £66, or $6,600 today. Cawley notes that “Steel bells are much thinner than their bronze counterparts, and the cast metal is in any case lighter for a given size.” The Center Meeting House’s cast steel bell, serial Number 1513, was made in the hay-day of Naylor Vickers’ production. “The greater number of steel bells were cast in the years 1857-64,” according to Cawley. Our bell has been reasonably well maintained as the identification on it is still very readable and not rusted out.

The details of our bell had been lost for perhaps a century, as NV records are missing. George Dawson of Sheffield is compiling a database of bells produced by Naylor Vickers, using information sent from people like us to fill the gaps in his records. Currently, his records list the first bell having been cast in 1853, and the last in 1899: this appears to be the timeframe during which these interesting bells were produced. Cawley reported “…an output of 7,500 bells, ranging from 7 tons to 35 lbs., confirmed to a comparatively short overall period is something in which any founder might take pride.”

We sincerely hope that a restored belfry and a finely tuned 1860 steel bell will be a delight for the townspeople of Newbury.  To help make this a possibility, please fill out our membership/donation form, or contact us.

In early September, 2009 the Architecture & Restoration Committee of CMH authorized work to begin on the restoration of the Bell Tower.  The Bell Tower was replaced atop the Center Meeting House in early December, 2009.  The lifting of the tower back onto the meeting house was another one of those unique moments in the resoration process where everyone had their cameras on "ready."