Tuned up and ready to ring: St. Dunstan's Basilica bells heading home this month

Eighteen church bells from St. Dunstan's Basilica in Charlottetown will arrive on the Island soon after a tune-up at the foundry in South Carolina where they were initially produced in the 1920s. The bells were taken down from the steeple in the late seventies because of structural concerns.

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"Excited, very excited," said Charlottetown historian Catherine Hennessey who has been lobbying to have the bells restored for more than a decade.

Hennessey initially faced resistance when she raised the idea of restoring the bells. The Charlottetown bishop spoke out publicly against the idea because engineers said they would add too much stress to the church's tower.

A fundraising committee, led by Charlottetown business person Kevin Murphy, picked up the idea and has been working to raise the $425,000 to complete the project. 

Steeple support

To solve the structural issues, the price tag includes a separate frame that will carry the weight of the bells.

"There was some cautiousness, I'll call it, to ensure that was not compromised going forward with any initiative that we took," explained Murphy.

"The opinion of our engineers and the design of it is this will actually enhance the structure."

The bells were taken out of storage last October and sent by truck to South Carolina.

"The project is a technical and engineering accomplishment, re-installing the historic bells back into the tower, with no weight or forces being carried by the steeple itself," said Stan Christoph, President of Christoph Paccard Bell Foundry.

"The weight of the bell frame and bells is transmitted all the way down to the massive walls of the tower that are well able to carry the load."

Bells restored

The bells also needed to be cleaned.

"Not really for the cosmetic appearance of the bells, rather to clean off some paint and accumulated dirt debris from 40 years of being stored in a crawl space," said Christoph.

"The paint and debris hinders the free ringing of the bells and the removal of these foreign materials allows the bells to ring clearly and musically."
 
Christoph and his team will be travelling with the bells to install them and test them.

"The eighteen bells can play music, clock chimes, hour strikes, celebration peals, funeral tolls," said Christoph. 

The Foundry in Charleston, South Carolina is the United States branch of the Paccard Fonderie des Cloches, makers of cast bronze bells since 1796.

The bells from St. Dunstan's also have sister chimes at other churches, including St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City and St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal.

Played electronically

Some bells are played by rope, Murphy explained, but the St. Dunstan's bells were always played by keyboard.

"Because of the age of them and they'd been out of circulation for a number of decades, they had to be re-tuned," he said.

"Bells of that size and magnitude are re-tuned specially and then they are tested because the technology today is that they will not be swinging bells, they will be stationary and they'll be electronically played."

"It's exciting that they're getting a second life."

'Champion of the bells'

The fundraising committee still has to raise about another $100,000 to cover the cost of restoring the bells, but Murphy isn't worried about meeting the goal.

"We've had families, amazingly, just come in to the office when we're talking about these bells and they've said I listened to these bells growing up and I'd like to make a donation," he said.

Murphy's motivation is mainly because of Hennessey, who he calls "the champion of the bells".

"I've learned from her how important it is to protect our heritage," said Murphy.

"That's why we got involved, it's something we felt was important to our community and to the province."

Canada Day debut

Hennessey is thankful for the support.

"If it hadn't been for Kevin and that committee, we wouldn't have been where we are today, he's a tactful man and very useful, wonderful."

And she can't wait to hear the bells again.

"I remember when there was a bishop consecrated here that they rang the bells and it was a wonderful sound," said Hennessey.

"They were just church bells when I was a kid so I didn't get excited about it until I started to read about them."

The plan is for the bells to play, officially, for the first time on Canada Day. 

When they do, Hennessey will be across the street from the Basilica, hanging out with the historical statue of the two John Hamilton Grays — the perfect spot for a historian for a moment in history.

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