It's with apologies that I commence the Bournville blog entry. It's been a long time coming for one reason or another - not least because I had to go back to work but also because I had to spend time with my daughters whom I totally neglected while we all went bell-hopping around the country ...
Saturday 16th August
Bournville Carillon,
School Tower, Linden Road, Bournville
Bournville carillon, rising above the Village Schools, overlooks the Village Green. Under its distinctive copper cupola you can see its 48 bells. This carillon is considered by many to be one of the finest in the world.
Most people know that Bounville Village was founded by the Cadbury family, named as such because a stream, the Bourn, ran through the area where George and Richard Cadbury were building their new factory in the 1880's - it was thought quite fashionable to add 'ville' to give it a French air and also to make a tenuous connection with French chocolate which was highly regarded at the time.
We were met at the Carillon Visitor Centre by Arthur Casey who is the Carillon maintenance engineer and historian. The Visitors' Centre is situated in 'The Rest House, which is in the Village Green and which is a beautiful octagonal building built in 1914.
The Rest House was erected to commemorate the Silver Wedding of Mr and Mrs George Cadbury and was a gift from Cadbury employees. Sadly, over the years, the Rest House was vandalised and eventually closed to the public. That was until 1997 when Bournville Village Trust worked to bring the two legacies of George Cadbury together - the Rest House and Carillon - and formally re-opened the Rest House as the Visitor Centre. Incidentally, there has always been an association with the Carillon all stemming from the Belgian City of Bruges. Not only was George Cadbury inspired to construct the Carillon after hearing the bells of Bruges Town Hall, but hand-made bricks from the ancient buildings of Bruges were taken to construct the Rest House.
Arthur escorted us across the road and into the School - a beautiful school, a personal gift to the Village of Bournville from George Cadbury and his wife in 1906. We walked up two floors of the school before taking a short spiral staircase up onto the roof which houses the bells and clavier room.
Caroline had been booked to play both afternoon recitals so it wasn't an impromptu visit. Trevor Workman, the Bournville Carillonneur (of earlier video fame) at this time was on a carillon tour of the USA!
George Cadbury ordered 22 bells from John Taylor & Co, Loughborough and in 1906 they were installed in a small stone belfry on the NW corner of the new village schools. Only one of the original bells, the largest, still remains. Following George Cadbury's death in 1922, a further 15 bells were added in 1923 and 5 in 1925 in his memory - all cast by Talylors.
A major reconstruction of the Carillon took place in 1934 when Gillett & Johnston Bellfoundry, Croyden, re-cast all but four of the bells. They also added 6 more bells, including a new bass weighing 3.25 tons, bringing the total to 48. The belfry was no longer big enough so the bells were hung on a frame in the centre of the tower roof, protected by the cupola. A new clavier was also installed in a cabin on the roof.
Restoration work was carried out again in 1988 by John Taylor's when new clappers and springs were fitted along with a new clavier (above).
Before the 1934 restoration the carillon was played from the room below the stone belfry which now houses the clock and chime mechanism, the remains of the automatic mechanism and the practice clavier (made from the old 1923 clavier).
There are excellent views from the clavier cabin and roof - this one below looks towards the current Cadbury's chocolate factory.
It's a common belief that Bournville was founded solely to house workers from the Cadbury factory and, whilst George Cadbury wanted to ensure that his workers were housed and given a healthy standard of living with time and places for education and recreation, he did not intend to be 'ruler over an empire' and anyone could buy one of the Bournville houses - not just his employees.
Carillon recitals at Bournville are usually played every Saturday at 12 noon and 3:00 pm and visitors can be given a guided tour of the carillon as well as see the carillon being played by live video link from the clavier room to the visitor centre.
Sometimes recital times have to be amended due to weddings taking place which was what happened on the day we visited. Caroline's first recital started at 1:45 to coincide with the Bride, Groom and their guests leaving the church - the wedding party had all their photographs taken with the atmospheric sound of the carillon bells being played in the background.
Before Caroline played her second recital at around 3:45, again to coincide with a wedding, we explored the village of Bournville and can highly recommend a visit. We were also, unexpectedly and very kindly, treated to lunch by Arthur.
We'd like to thank Arthur Casey for his very warm welcome and his very informative guided tour of Bournville Carillon. Arthur showed us material from the archives not only about Bournville but about most of the Carillons in the UK and Ireland and we'll definitely be back to pick up more interesting snippets about the carillons for the blog / book (?)!
We were particularly interested to see these pictures of the Carillon in Bond Street, London which we have not been able to visit so far - for reasons we are not clear about as yet but will update the blog as soon as we learn the situation.
The Carillon at Bournville is lovingly looked after and respected by both the community and the Village Trust - this is reflected not only in the sheer volume of current and historical information available about it but also in the inauguration of the Carillon School in 2006 by Sir Adrian Cadbury.
Check out the website for lots more news and info:
http://www.carillon.atspace.org/
Coming next on the blog -
Video footage of Parkgate, Cheshire
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