In 2023, members of the Community Church of New Boston reported hearing vibrating noises and noticing small movements from the wall at the front of the church when the bell was rung. It was determined that the swinging of the bell was introducing significant lateral loads to the structure and that it should be addressed. After some research the church decided a striker system should be installed. Upon further inspection, the members of the Trustees of Expenditures found the cradle that holds the nearly 2000lb historic, genuine Paul Revere bell and yoke was very old and should be replaced.
The church Trustees and members of The Session have contracted with McShane Bell, an old American bell manufacturer in Maryland Heights, Missouri (https://mcshanebell.com/work/) to replace the bell cradle and install a bell striker system to resolve these issues. In addition the church is working with Glenn Dodge, owner of Dodgeco Contracting Services (https://dodgco.com) to define the best materials and implementation strategy so the church can get a contractor to properly replace the bed / platform roof that surrounds and protects where the cradle sits.
A custom steel powder coated cradle is going to be fabricated by McShane Bell and sent to the church for installation. McShane Bell will then send technicians that will use a lift rented by the church to go up to the bell platform area, jack up the bell off of the old cradle, replace the old cradle with the new custom cradle and dispose of the old cradle. The roofing company will install the new platform roof around the new cradle in coordination with McShane Bell.
All this is being done with the intention to have the bell ringing again after more than two years of silence in time for the July 4th celebration in New Boston in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States. If all goes as planned the historic church bell will not need further attention for many, many years...
The church Trustees and members of The Session have contracted with McShane Bell, an old American bell manufacturer in Maryland Heights, Missouri (https://mcshanebell.com/work/) to replace the bell cradle and install a bell striker system to resolve these issues. In addition the church is working with Glenn Dodge, owner of Dodgeco Contracting Services (https://dodgco.com) to define the best materials and implementation strategy so the church can get a contractor to properly replace the bed / platform roof that surrounds and protects where the cradle sits.
A custom steel powder coated cradle is going to be fabricated by McShane Bell and sent to the church for installation. McShane Bell will then send technicians that will use a lift rented by the church to go up to the bell platform area, jack up the bell off of the old cradle, replace the old cradle with the new custom cradle and dispose of the old cradle. The roofing company will install the new platform roof around the new cradle in coordination with McShane Bell.
All this is being done with the intention to have the bell ringing again after more than two years of silence in time for the July 4th celebration in New Boston in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States. If all goes as planned the historic church bell will not need further attention for many, many years...