Llandaff & Monmouth DACBR Belfry Maintenance Group
The scheme aims to provide assistance with keeping bells in good order at towers where they can no longer do this work themselves.
How it works
- Volunteers give up one day per month to carry out inspections and simple maintenance.
- All work is voluntary, but the Association has a legacy gift fund which is used to pay travel expenses, and to buy essential spares for use in towers which don’t have a band, or don’t have funds to pay for them.
- BMG visits can be requested by local ringers or by the church, but we always obtain formal permission for the inspection in advance from the incumbent or responsible church representative. This ensures that we are covered by church insurance for the visit.
- For buildings which are no longer churches within the Church in Wales, the owner of the building must have insurance to the same or better level than that provided by the Ecclesiastical Parish Plus policy to cover the volunteers in the BMG and the Group's activities on the bells.
- It is made clear to the incumbent or owner of the building that we are a voluntary group and as such are NOT qualified to give any legally binding report or advice.
- We use a formal inspection checklist that includes key elements, from bird and weather proofing of the tower, to lighting and safety, frame integrity, bells, fittings and rope condition checks.
- Typical work includes tightening up loose nuts and bolts, stripping and cleaning pulley blocks, replacing leather clapper washers, rebuilding wheel braces, making and fitting new stays and lots of rope splicing! We also have an odd-struckness meter to improve the even striking of a ring.
- Simple maintenance issues are fixed as we find them, but where more work is needed we will return with tools and parts to complete the work on a subsequent visit. Our typical day combines one first tower inspection, plus one other local tower which we need to re-visit to complete work, while of course leaving time for a nice picnic lunch and some of Joy Kipling's exceedingly good cake!
- Where local steeple keeper volunteers are available we will include them in our visit as a valuable training opportunity. We also meet with local ringers whenever possible to test ring the bells, and have even sometimes been treated to lunch by our very grateful hosts!
- Following every visit, a formal report from the BMG is sent back to the incumbent and the tower, summarising our findings, and most importantly highlighting future work that is needed to keep the bells safe and in good condition. Delivered as a formal written report from the Association this often carries more weight than just having the local tower captain bend the ear of the vicar yet again about the need for urgent repairs.
