Meridian Index

PAGE INDEX

Women's Club

Football Club

Camera Club

 BELL APPEAL

NEW BELLS CAST

Friday 15th October saw the Vicar and seven ringers make the journey to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London to oversee the casting of two new bells for Swavesey.

The process of making a bell has changed very little over the last four hundred years. The foundry in London can trace it's roots back as early as 1420 and is the oldest manufacturing company in England. Bells are cast into a mould of a core (the inside of the bell) and the cope (the outer side of the bell) forming the shape of a bell.

The moulds are specially made for each bell of a loam mix of clay, straw, horse manure and goat hair and into the cope - in reverse - the inscriptions are formed by pushing the letters and shapes. Bell metal; an alloy of approximately 77% copper and 23% tin is heated until it becomes molten and is a brightly glowing yellow liquid. This is moved from the furnace to the waiting moulds and poured in until full.

The new treble - the smaller of the bells, was cast first. This has a mouth of two feet, three inches (680 mm) and is expected to weigh about 4cwt-2qrs-14lbs (~133 Kgs). The new second was cast next and will have a mouth diameter of two feet, four inches (711 mm) and weighing approximately 4cwt-3qrs-14lbs (~146 Kgs). A third bell was cast at the same time for a Church in Houston in Texas, United States of America.

The cast was the part of the process that we were able to view. We left the bells cooling to enjoy a couple of pints to wash out the dust from the works. The bells will remain in their moulds until the following week when they will be removed and cleaned up in preparation for tuning.

The tuning of a bell is a complex matter; the bell is made to produce five different notes each time it is struck. The main tone is known as the fundamental or strike note. The other four tones are the hum - an octave below the fundamental; the nominal - an octave above; a minor third and fifth above the strike note. At the time of writing, the bells should be leaving the foundry to go to the bell hanger's workshop where the fittings will be assembled and prepared to enable installation at Swavesey.

For more information and to try bell ringing, please contact the tower captain,
Andrew Stevens. Telephone: 231433 or email: steeplekeeper@elyda.org

 MERIDIAN WOMEN'S CLUB  

Click on the picture to see a larger version

During the last year the club has raised £500 for the Cambridge Branch of the Alzheimer’s Society. The money was collected through a series of fundraising events, speaker donations and donations from members and guests. At our meeting on Wednesday 20th October we presented Wendy Dunn, an outreach worker for the branch, with a cheque. Following the presentation, Wendy Dunn spoke to the club about the work of the Alzheimer’s Society, which supports sufferers and their families.

We are a small club and are very pleased to have raised this  relatively large amount of money. Our club meets in the Memorial Hall on alternate Wednesdays from 8.00pm

Swavesey Institute Football Club -March/April 2004

SWAVESEY INSTITUTE FOOTBALL CLUB - SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2004

First Team (Sponsored by Swavesey Post Office and Newsagents)
A promising start to the season for the First Team in Senior B following promotion Junior 1B last season.  The loss of some key players seems to have been overcome.  At the end of October the team find themselves in the top half of the table on the fringe of the promotion zone and unbeaten in their cup outings.  Tight defensive displays have been complimented with goals from the midfield and the attack, including the return to scoring ways of Martin Williams after 2 seasons of mediocrity. 

Reserves (Sponsored by The White Horse)
The Reserves are on the fringe of the Junior 4B promotion race at the end of October, although out of the Lower Junior Cup they won their first outing in the John Ablett Cup.  An error strewn outing by Sean Willis between the sticks saw him have a speedy return to the outfield; his response was a goal in successive games.  After two disappointing seasons where relegation looked almost certain until last game escape acts, the Reserves have a strong chance of securing promotion and a 3B berth at the end of this term.  

Want to play?
It is still not too late to join the club and register for the 2004/05 season.  If you are interested in playing contact Phil Baines on 200377.  Check the Swavesey fixtures in the Cambridge Evening News on a Friday night and come and support your village side.  Saturday fixtures start at 2pm in December and January, with all home games being played on Swavesey Green (weather permitting), followed afterwards by social banter in The White Horse (not weather dependant).

Social
Thanks to all who attended and sponsored the Wig Gig Disco held on 2 Oct.  The event was a sell out and funds raised will be used to help finance the club development plan aimed at improving the football facilities in Swavesey. 

Sponsorship
Any potential club sponsors should ring Jim Foster on 232842 to discuss ideas.

 A WHITE CHRISTMAS ?

The weathermen are threatening us with a dreadful winter; it is unlikely that any one of us is looking forward to it but perhaps there could be a few compensations, maybe skating on Mere Fen, wonderful snow-scapes round the lakes, mornings when the trees and shrubs in your garden have turned into fairyland overnight. Birds lose their fear and come up close on your bird-tables, and then there are snowmen and snowball fights and those hysterical moments when Grandpa has snow pushed down his jumper. And of course you want to capture it all on camera.

Now a word of caution; snow and ice are notoriously difficult to photograph, the results are often under-exposed, dull and disappointing. What is the answer?- well, come along to Swavesey Camera Club,of course, where there are plenty of experienced members who would be happy to help you with this and any other problem, and it is also a very pleasant way of spending an otherwise boring long winter evening.

In this magazine we have some exciting news for the village. Those of you who live in the older properties in this area might have seen our President, Jane, photographing your homes as part of the English Heritage project, 'Images of England', which aims to record every one of them on their website. As part of the promotion of this huge enterprise they have brought out a set of five postcards, and we are delighted to announce that of all the many thousands of photographs taken throughout the whole country, one of those chosen is Jane's excellent view of Swavesey Mill.

See:- http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/search/photsrch.asp?Letter=G

Then select photographer:- Greatorex, Jane LRPS