I recently visited Frenchay (Glos) to have a look at the bells, particularly the stay and slider arrangement. The bells are light, with a Tenor of 4-1-3 (217kg). Because of this, the bells are fitted with steel stays and pendulum-type sliders.
Thinking about this, our 'specification' for wooden stays is 'straight-grained ash'. But is there a specification for the grade of steel for a steel stay?
Any thoughts on this? And how many other towers have steel stays?
Marske-by-the-sea has 'bendy' steel stays on the two trebles, each bell weighs around 2cwt. With neighbouring towers all having bells with tenors of around 1 tonne, there was a fear that visitors to Marske might overpull and the throughput of stays migh be somewhat tiresome!
Don't know the exact specification but the original stays supplied by Taylors were fashioned out of old cart springs!