St Mary’s Church, Attleborough, Norfolk – Recording church bell frames

 As existing cross-section through the tower and transepts looking east The re-hanging of bells in church towers often requires the partial renewal and strengthening of their supporting timber bell frames and can result in the loss of important historic fabric. A number of recent cases have highlighted the difficulties of reconciling the interests of building conservationists, keen to protect and preserve in situ important medieval and later fixtures and fittings, with the needs of present day bell ringers, whose desire may be to replace old or technically inefficient bell frames with more up to date and user friendly equipment, and to create a better space and surroundings in which to perform services and conduct meetings and social activities. Sometimes the main reason for wishing to renew a bell frame is to augment the ring to create more combinations of ringing changes before returning to rounds, i.e. the sequence when all bells are struck from the lightest (the treble) to the heaviest (the tenor).

If historic fabric is to be lost or altered, the question arises: what should be recorded, and to what level of detail? Where should we draw the line between recording and analysis before consent is given (i.e. to inform conservation decisions) and recording and analysis as a condition of consent (i.e. to preserve by record)? At present English Heritage provides no official guidance on how to record and assess bell frames.

In 2002 English Heritage decided to undertake historical record surveys of two medieval bell frames, at Attleborough in Norfolk, and St Osyth in Essex. The aim of the project was to explore the practical issues surrounding the recording of bell frames and in particular the use of computer-based surveying techniques for recording bell frame structures. Until now, bell frames have had to be recorded by hand using tape measures and drawing boards. Although computer-based electronic surveying methods are now a standard part of buildings archaeology, prior to the English Heritage project it was uncertain whether such methods could successfully be used to record bell frames.

The method adopted involved a combination of digital photography and computer photo-editing software to convert photographic images into line drawings. Photographs of the bell frame were converted digitally to line drawings and taken back to church where they were coloured in and annotated to show the phasing of the individual timbers and later repairs and alterations to the bell frame. The coloured up phase drawings were then used as the basis for a final set of computer-generated 3-d survey drawings. In practice, the use of digital photography combined with computer photo-editing software proved an extremely quick and effective method of capturing complex phasing and constructional evidence.

To create as existing cross-sectional drawings through the tower and nave of St Marys, Attleborough, a series of digital photographs was taken inside the tower from top to bottom; these were joined together to form a digital photo-montage of the interior elevation and this was digitally adjusted so that it conformed to the shape of the CAD line drawing. The resulting as existing cross-sectional elevation views (one through the tower and transepts, and the other through the nave) were further developed on computer using photo-editing software and a series of conjectural reconstruction drawings was produced showing how the church may have appeared at different stages in its historical development. By recording not just the structural development of the bell frame but its relationship to the tower and church as a whole it was possible to show that the (re)construction of the bell frame in the early sixteenth century was not an isolated event, but represented a key stage in a planned redevelopment of the church beginning around the end of the fifteenth century and ending with the Reformation.

For more information on this recently completed project, please contact Richard Bond, telephone 0207 973 3747, e-mail Richard.bond@english-heritage.org.uk.