Titanic link to church bell mystery
AS I wrote this column, Sark was going to the polls to elect four conseillers who will sit in Chief Pleas until December of next year when they, along with 10 sitting members, will be eligible to stand for re-election.
AS I wrote this column, Sark was going to the polls to elect four conseillers who will sit in Chief Pleas until December of next year when they, along with 10 sitting members, will be eligible to stand for re-election.
Six people stood and success went the way of poll-topper Hazel Fry, Steve Taylor, Rosanne Byrne and Simon Higgins.
They will fill the vacancies caused by the resignations of Rossford de Carteret, Ann Atkinson and David Pollard and the death of Stephen Henry, all of whom, I have to say, were never afraid of putting often unpopular observations before the assembly, despite knowing that the majority of their colleagues held different views.
The occasions when legislative assemblies elsewhere speak with one voice – and particularly so in the House of Commons – are few and far between and occur most frequently at times of either great sadness or a huge crisis.
Here, if the experience of almost three years of all-singing, all-dancing democratic government – in stark contrast to what went before, when 80% of Chief Pleas was unelected – is anything to go by, the opposite is true.
Since the historic first all-elected Chief Pleas took office in December 2008, I can count on my fingers the occasions when anything approaching a proper debate has taken place.
Whether that changes as a result of this by-election only time will tell.
All the candidates gave me the impression that on occasions they would be prepared to call a spade a spade – and sometimes even a shovel. It remains to be seen whether their conversations in The Avenue translate into a change of emphasis from the current policy of approving far-reaching legislation almost on the nod.
That said, those elected are in for some onerous (well, onerous for some of them) and often thankless tasks and, always providing they do what they believe to be best for the whole community and not just part of it, I hope they have a stimulating and enjoyable period in office.
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On now to the bell and the Belle – two subjects I wrote about a week ago.
My thanks to those who telephoned, emailed and wrote about the small bell on the south side of St Peter's Church. Not surprisingly, the accounts varied considerably but John David of St Sampson's sent me details from two newspaper stories from the mid-'60s.
One Sunday morning in August 1965, minister the Rev. Philip Ellard Handley took the congregation out to view a ship's bell hanging on the south wall. He explained that for several months, Mr C. Vibert (sacristan) had been unable to ring the church bell for medical reasons.
As a result, the minister approached the owner of Jersey Lines (which operated 'the Duchess', otherwise known as Sooty) NJ Couasjee who, with Capt. Markham from Guernsey, worked to provide the bell.
John David also told me that it was cast by Utley Bros of Rainhill, Lancashire (they trade today as T. M. Utley Offshore), which also made the bells for the Titanic. He added that the reason the bell was hard to ring was that one of the joints of the frame had come loose and it was repaired by tying it down to steel joists.
Other accounts varied slightly – including one which suggested it was too small to be a ship's bell – and if other information becomes available, I will pass it on.
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The other Belle now – the Sark Belle – and Sunday's trip for interested residents was postponed until today because of bad weather.
The suitability of the vessel for working in inclement weather has been the subject of much comment in the last month. The only observation I have is that in bad weather the need for a larger vessel on the route does not arise, simply because the demand for day trips all but dries up when it's rough.
Perhaps the Sark Shipping directors know what they're doing after all.
l The email address for comment is fallesark@sark.net.
