The Keltek Trust: Sound of Bells - A Simpson tuned Medieval bell

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Englishcombe, Somerset,
St Peter

The bells at Englishcombe have probably not been rung full-circle since the late 19th Century. The ring of five bells has two Thomas Mears trebles cast in 1822, a John Rudhall bell cast in 1789 and two medieval tenor bells by the Bristol foundry circa 1400. Sadly the 4th bell is cracked in the soundbow. The anti-clockwise frame is probably 300 years old.
The tenor bell is a fine sounding bell and a tonal analysis of its sound shows the Prime is a semitone lower than the

Nominal and the Hum a semitone lower than the Prime. It is an almost perfect Simpson-tuned bell. The only partial not Simpson tuned is the Quint, which is hardly heard when a bell is struck on the Soundbow.

The tonal analysis results (upper left) were produced using WAVEANAL.

Soundblaster Wavestudio was used to show the sound envelope (left).

Listen to this bell

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