A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



is to say, the first and second bells now hanging 

 in the steeple at the chapel of Congleton afore- 

 said.' 37 



In the following year Oldfield was entrusted 

 with another Cheshire commission, the casting 

 of the three bells at Tattenhall, where the 

 ' Ringers' Rules ' contain a reference to his 

 name not met with elsewhere in the following 

 couplet : 



If for to ring you do come here 



You must ring well with hand and ear. 



By Atkins made and Oldfield writ also, 



That foreign ringers may their forfeits know. K 



At the Congleton foundry Oldfield seems to 

 have been assisted by George Lee and Paul 

 Hutton, who were afterwards casting there from 

 1620 to 1630. The former founder, it has 

 been suggested, was most probably a partner of 

 Oldfield's, and managed what may have been 

 the Congleton branch of the Nottingham 

 foundry. 39 The presence on the four Waverton 

 bells, cast by Lee in 1615, of a stamp similar 

 to that appearing on Oldfield's Lincolnshire 

 bells in 1589, 1595, 1596, seems to prove a 

 connexion between the two founders. 40 



George Oldfield succeeded to his father's 

 business, and was at work from 1620 to 1674. 

 He cast six bells for St. Martin's, Leicester, in 

 l6s8. 41 In 1672 there was a Hugh Oldfield 

 engaged in the industry. On his death in 1680 

 his widow, Alice, is supposed to have carried on 

 the foundry, no name appearing on the bells of 

 this period, accredited, however, to this dynasty. 

 Another George Oldfield was casting from 1741 

 to 1/47, when their foundry passed to the 

 Hedderleys. 42 



Daniel Hedderley of Bawtry was presumably 

 the father of Thomas, the first to occupy the 

 tiled building in Bellfounders' Yard, which was 

 afterwards (in 1850) converted into a slaughter- 

 house. 43 In his time it was the custom of the 

 workmen to assemble for prayer before running 

 the metal. 44 He made use of several of the 

 Oldfields' legends and patterns, 45 but although 

 placing his name as a rule in full on all his bells, 

 he only added 'of Nottingham' after the death 

 of the last George Oldfield. 46 His numerous 



87 Earwaker, Local Gleanings, 109-10. 



*" Gaythorpe, Ches. Courant, 6 May 1908. 



39 Ibid. 40 Ibid. 



" North, Churchwarden? elects. 206. The follow- 

 ing items occur in the Churchwardens' Accts. of 

 Newark, 1657 and 1658 : 'Carriage of a letter to 

 Mr. Oldfield, id. Spent on Mr. Oldfield when he 

 came over, 6d. For casting the brasses at Notting- 

 ham, 54/. Paid Mr. Oldfield for ye chipping of 

 2 bells as by bills, T.T.S. Paid Henrie Goddard for 

 grinding Mr. Oldfield's tools, 4^. 6d. Spent upon 

 Mr. Oldfield, iSa? Brown, Hist. Newark, 327. 



41 North, op. cit. 129-31. "Ibid. 



" Briscoe, Curiosities of the Belfry, 89. 



45 Reftjuary, xiii, 88. Ibid. 



bells, says Mr. Phillimore, include some which 

 are well cast, many others, however, being of 

 inferior workmanship and carelessly executed 

 lettering. 47 He died in 1 778, and was succeeded 

 by his son Thomas, who died in 1785, and was 

 followed by a younger brother, George, who 

 alludes, in an advertisement inserted by him in a 

 local paper, to the Old Bell Foundry having 

 been in existence for upwards of three centuries. 48 

 He eventually emigrated to America, where he 

 died in 1799. His name appears in 1788 as a 

 subscriber to Clavis Campanologica. John Hed- 

 derley, a brother of George, finally abandoned 

 bell-founding for the more lucrative trade of 

 framesmith, when the industry of framework 

 knitting had become a staple of Nottingham. 49 



William Noone, who cast the fifth bell of 

 St. Martin's, Leicester, in ijoo, 60 and who was 

 probably identical with the member of the Not- 

 tingham Town Council whose name occurs in 

 the Borough Records in 1690," may have been 

 employed, as North suggests, 62 after the death of 

 George Oldfield in 1680 to carry on the busi- 

 ness during the minority of his grandson George. 

 Payment of ^i 8*. to ' Mr. Noone, bell-founder,' 

 occurs in the Congleton parish records, 63 the 

 connexion of the Oldfields with this place being 

 pointed out elsewhere. William Noone was 

 buried in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham, 17 

 August 1732. 



Small bells were cast at Nottingham in the 

 1 8th century by Mr. Tatham, first at Castle 

 Gate, and afterwards at Bridlesmithgate, where 

 he had established a brass and cock foundry. 64 



47 Ibid. Those at Mansfield Woodhouse bear the 

 inscription, 'Touch me not, and I am silent : strike 

 me, and I sound sweetly ' (Harrod, Hist. Mansfield, 

 36) ; on the fourth bell at Eakring, the legend runs, 

 ' The note lyeth betwixt A and G ' (Notts, and Derby 

 N. and Q. Nov. 1898, p. 177). He also cast the 

 fourth bell at Shelford (Thoroton Sof. Trans, vii, 43). 



48 Phillimore, Old Notts. 117. Phillimore repro- 

 duces in his article on ' Notts. Campanology ' in the 

 Reliquary entries from a pocket-book belonging to this 

 founder, relating to accounts for bells, weights, 

 measures, &c., also sketches of bell-frames, op. cit. 84. 



49 Reliquary, op. cit. 



60 North, Church Bells Lines. 131; ibid. ' Accts. 

 Churchwardens, St. Martin's,' 216. It was agreed 

 that the bell-founder should ' have 2os. per cwt. for 

 casting it, tuneable to the rest, and as near the same 

 weight as may be, he allowing \od. per Ib. for what 

 it wants, and we izd. for what it wants more. The 

 parish is to be at charge to carry it to Nottingham ; 

 and he to return it and recast it if not tuneable, or if 

 cracked in a year.' Noone also cast the tenor bell 

 in 1704 ; the bell being taken down weighed 

 19 cwt. I qr. 1 6 Ib. 



51 Rec. Boro. Nott. v, 371, 377. " North, op. cit. 



63 Earwaker, Ches. and Lanes. Hist. Soc. Trans, (new 

 ser.), vi, 6. 



" Blackner, Hist. Nott. 218. The writer is in- 

 debted to the courteous assistance of Mr. Walters in 

 the preparation of this article. 



37 



