The Swansong of the Steel Bells of Moseley St Mary, Birmingham

(To begin with, I have no idea why the camera has included a magical rainbow of colours across the picture!)

The small tower of St Marys, Moseley is the only suriving part of the medieval church, which was rebuilt on a much more massive scale in the late 19th century by the local architect Chatwin (who is also responsible for the majority of St Martins in the Bullring church).

There were three bells in this tower until 1874. A local man acquired a set of 8 steel bells, and the three bells were transferred to the nearby new church of St Annes.

The steel bells were not rung full circle for the majority of the 20th century. In 1990, voluntary work began on restoring the derelict installation to some sort of ringability, using second hand and reused fittings in places. This restoration was achieved and they were rung for the first time in 82 years on Easter Sunday 1991.

A new local band was formed to ring them, and the band thrived despite the difficulty of the bells. However, everyone acknowledged that the difficulty and poor tone of the bells meant that their long term existence was not ideal.

The idea of replacing them brewed for a time, before a fundraising campaign was launched to raise £140,000 for a completely new installation.

And here we are today-

The work to remove the bells and frame completely from the tower will finish next week (mid January 2012) and the new installation will be finished later this year.

The back three of the new 18cwt ten are at present in the church - they are the back three of a redundant Gillett and Johnston chime from Greenock in Scotland. 7 lighter bells will be cast by Taylors, to the same profile, to create the ten.

The steel bells are destined for the Swan Bell Tower in Perth, Western Australia, where there is a growing clock and bell collection.

I am sad to see the last of an unusual and interesting bell installation, but in the long run their continued use was not conduicive to a fruitful local ringing culture.