Whitechapel and a bit of nostalgia

Fido · Wednesday November 4, 2009

Thanks to Boab and Ollie, I'm listening to a recording from Radio 4 about Whitechapel Bell Foundry, one of my very favourite places. A magical place where you revisit yesteryear. I'm drooling as they bring to life the unique place that bells have in our lives.

As I look up I see a part of this room where I have two of my Whitechapel bells. Here is a pic. The bell on the shelf above the pic of Bobby Moore (I was there in '66 at Wembley) was made for me by Whitechapel and engraved to mark my 60th birthday. The one with a replica of the FA Cup was made by Whitechapel to commemorate Pompey's cup win last year. The bell on the wall was made by another foundry for England's World Cup Rugby win in 2003.

As to the black and white photo - that was a much younger Fido celebrating another cup win - but that was for a very dull thing. The New Forest Council of which I was Finance Director at the time won the first ever Public Sector Accounts Award in 1980 for our annual report. It was fun to receive it - British Gas were third, West Midland County were second and little old us pipped them. So we had a party the next day. That's the photo.

Now the bells have fished on the radio!

Thanks Boab, thanks Ollie for stirring me to a trip down memory lane.

Fido · Thursday November 5, 2009

Listening again to the radio 4 Whitechapel programme, I heard Steve McEwan describing his love of working at the foundry. Steve supervises the small bells team and makes special orders himself. He has now made 6 for me. This is what he said:

"Some people, they want to go into an office and want to earn loads of money. Other people,don't get me wrong, we all want to earn loads of money. But if it's something you make, you see an end result, something that's just magical. It reduces me to tears, do you know what I mean?, It's just magical to have something you start, finish, and brings joy to a lot of people, you just can't beat that."

One of my special favourites made for me by Steve is a Sacring or Sanctus bell. Here is a blog I did which tells it's story and showing Steve looking at one of his creations.

I so respect people with art and craft skills. It is not my forte. But it's good to know the pleasure that we give by our enthusiasm for their creations.

<a class="postlink" href="http://thesacringbell.blogspot.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://thesacringbell.blogspot.com/</a>