SAINT HELENS : ENGLAND -LA

*Location:

   St.Mary's, Lowe House, RC Church
   North Road at Crab Street
   St.Helens, Lancashire, England
   OS Ref. SJ 509 958
   LL: N 53.45712, W 2.73991

Site locator map via
or or [StreetMapUK/titled] or [StreetMapUK/plain]
City locator maps and gazetteer page (County is wrong; other data are correct.)
Also see our own Map Use Hints.

*Player:

   Anthony (Tony) Brookes

   19??-?? Eva Garner   (d.)

*Contact:

   Msgr. Vincent Hughes, Parish Priest
   T: 744/22167
   - or -
   Christine Currah
   T: 744/37257
   - or -
   The Carillon
   Lowe House Heritage & Development Group
   Crab Street
   St.Helens  WA10 2BE
   (or c/o Holy Cross Presbytery
    Corporation Street
    St.Helens  WA101EF)
   F: 01744/23416
   E: marilynroberts@btconnect.com
      mroberts@holycrossandlowehouse.co.uk

*Schedule:

   Not played regularly.
   Quarter-tune is part of "Salve Regina"
   on 8 bells (unique in the UK).

*Remarks:

   Restoration in progress in 2005,
   by Hayward Mills, with new clappers and
   direct action transmission.

*Technical data:

   Traditional carillon of 47 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is G# in the bass octave
   Transposition is down 4 semitone(s)
   Keyboard range:     C C   /    C C 23
   There are two missing bass semitones
   There is an identical practice console
   The whole instrument was installed in 1929
     with bells made by Taylor      
   Year of latest technical information source is 1979

*Links:

The church Website opens with a photo of the building and tower.  There is an illustrated page about the carillon, but note that both photos of the bells are distorted, in opposite directions!  (Alternate URL)

British Carillon Society page, with 4 photos (all taken after the recent restoration)

Set of 98 photos from Hayward Mills Ltd covering the 2006 renovation of the carillon of St.Helens.  There is no annotation of the photos, and no particular organization of them within the set.  But it is clear that many of them show work in progress during the project.  "The carillon of 47 bells thoroughly overhauled.  A new top frame provided for the 17 smallest bells, a new scientifically designed direct-action transmission and new clappers fitted."

Where this work lies in the sequence of output of the Taylor bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.

Ranking among all British Isles traditional carillons by pitch (weight).
Ranking among all British Isles traditional carillons by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all British Isles traditional carillons by year of completion.

Index to all traditional carillons in this region.

Index to all tower bell instruments in UK-E.

*Status:

   This page was built from the database on 19-Jan-10
   based on textual data last updated on 2010/01/15
   and on technical data last updated on 1991/11/21

Explanations of page format and keyboard range are available.

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