BELL

An incomplete copper-alloy rumbler bell, similar to examples from the late 13th to the early 15th centuries found in London. These bells are made from four components, a suspension loop cut from sheeting, a hollow body, made in two halves by hammering a piece of sheet in a form and a round iron pea (Egan and Pritchard 1991, 338-339, fig 221, no 1666).

In this case only the loop and the upper half of the body of the bell now survives. The loop is now squashed flat and the rectangular strip it is made from is 7mm in width. The loop was inserted upwards through a hole cut in the centre of the upper half of the body and the ends were bent outwards and then inwards, there is a mass of lead/tin silvery coloured solder surrounding the inside face of the hole, which would presumably also have helped to hold the loop in place and rigid.

The surviving upper half of the body is incomplete and damaged on one edge and measures c35mm in diameter and c18mm in height. There is a flanged seam line where the two halves would have originally been joined together and along this are traces of lead/tin solder, which would have been used to hold the two halves together after the iron pea had been inserted. This seam was obviously the weakness in the design as the bell has split apart along it.