A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



that parish ' old widow Oldfield's ' burial occurs 

 on 16 May 1673, and it is quite likely that she 

 was the reUct of the founder. His name also 

 occurs in the churchwardens' accounts of the 

 parish of Shillington (co. Beds.), for which he 

 cast a bell, still existing, in 1638^ ; he is there 

 described as located at Hertford. 



The last-named bell bears a shield with an 

 arrow in pale and the letters R.O., which has 

 made it possible to identify as his work nearly 

 eighty bells, the majority of which bear this 



Stamp of Robert Oldfield 



Stamp. They cover the period from 1605 to 

 1640, and there are two in Bedfordshire, three 

 in Cambridgeshire, one in Lincoln, twenty-four 

 in Essex, and forty-eight in Hertfordshire, of 

 which two have been recently recast. Thfey are 

 inscribed in plain Roman letters, with an initial 

 cross, of which there are three varieties — a 

 plain one, a cross crosslet, and a floreated cross. 

 They fall into two distinct chronological divi- 

 sions : in the earlier (1605-16) the letters are 

 thick and the cross crosslet is used, in the later 

 (1616-40) the lettering is thin and somewhat 

 larger, the plain cross being used down to 162 1, 

 and then the floreated cross. His stock of in- 

 scriptions is somewhat limited ; the favourites 



a 



nd 



GOD SAVE THE KING 



PRAYSE YE THE LORD 



We also find 



GOD SAVE HIS CHURCH 

 lESVS BE OVR SPEDE 



and in Latin 



SONORO SONO MEO BONO DEO 



The seventh at Hemel Hempstead is inscribed 



SANA MANET CHRISTI PLEBISQVE RELIGIO VANA 



Four of his bells remain at Broxboume, three at 

 Tring, and three at Kimpton. As Stahlschmidt 

 has pointed out, the number remaining, especially 

 in this county, clearly shows that he had a 

 steady and profitable business. On his retire- 



12 North, CA. Bells 0/ Beds. 69, 190. 



ment in 1640 the foundry was closed, and bell- 

 founding in the county town ceased for some 

 140 years. 



In 1656 a ring of six bells was cast for Waltham 

 Abbey in Essex by a founder of the name of 

 ^^'illiam Whitmore at WoUford {sic), Hertford- 

 shire." The only reasonable interpretation of 

 the name ' Wollford ' is Watford, and, as there 

 are three or four bells by the same founder in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of that town, this 

 is additional confirmation. Like many other 

 founders of the period he was an ' itinerant,' 

 coming originally from the West. The bells 

 of Frocester, in Gloucestershire, were cast by him 

 in 1639, ^^* these are the only specimens of his 

 work in that part, and shortly afterwards he 

 appears to have migrated to Watford. Here 

 in 1647 he cast the priest's bell at Aldenham, 

 followed by three bells for Langley Marish 

 (co. Bucks.), in 1649, two for the curfew tower 

 of Windsor Castie in 1650, and one for Epping 

 town, Essex, in the latter year. Next we hear 

 of him in 1653, which year he apparently spent 

 in Essex, probably at Chelmsford, in the 

 neighbourhood of which town eight bells bear 

 that date and liis initials or lettering. Here, 

 however, he was not working independently, 

 but undertaking commissions for a newly- 

 established London founder, John Hodson. 

 At Boreham we find on the treble the initials 

 V^.ViJ., on the tenor the names (in full) of both 

 founders. Similarly at Good Easter the first 

 bore the initials LH., the fifth W.W. At 

 Steeple Bumpstead only Hodson's name appears, 

 and at Sandon and Springfield it is accompanied 

 by a single W. for Whitmore, but it is worth 

 noting that in all cases the lettering is Whit- 

 more's. In 1654 ^^ ^^^ back again at Watford, 

 and has left a bell at Bovingdon. Others in 

 Bedfordshire and Middlesex are dated 1656, 

 with his initials, and his latest effort was at 

 King's Langley in 1657. The fifth at Hert- 

 ingfordbury is interesting as showing that 

 he renewed his connexion with Hodson ; it is 

 inscribed 



ICEPB DVLCE SEQVAR W WHITMORE FOR 

 lOHN HVDSON 1656 



The fourth bell in the same tower is also his 

 work and of the same date. His bells are very 

 plain, the only ornament being a lozenge-shaped 

 stop, varied during the Essex period by one in 

 the form of a x with a lozenge above and below. 

 In or about the year 1699, according to 

 tradition, Richard Keene, a founder who had 

 been working for many years at Woodstock, in 

 Oxfordshire, set up a temporary foundry at 

 Royston. There is no actual evidence of his 

 residence there, except the testimony of the 

 bells themselves, all of which are in the neigh- 



" Deedes and Walters, Ch. Bells oj Essex, 112, 

 430. 



270 



