Peterborough to Pennsylvania Henry Penn Bellfounder
ISBN 1 902256 01 8 Published by Michael Lee
Chapel Publications Wansford PE8 6JD
The book has 150 pages and is just under
A4 in size with a glossy squared back cover and contains 200 illustrations
and drawings.
Henry Penn was born in Middleton Cheney Northamptonshire
in 1695. His mother Sarah was the sister of Henry Bagley a master bellfounder
of the nearby village of Chacombe. Henry Penn was brought up in an environment
between farming and the casting of church bells.
Henry took an apprenticeship with Henry Bagley II son of
the master bellfounder then working from the village of Ecton, also in
Northamptonshire. The book deals with the life and work of Henry Penn
when at the age of 18 he took over this foundry.
In 1981 Michael Lee author of this historical
account was involved in the repair and maintenance of church bells and the following
foreward to his book by Michael Colton of the Peterborough and Northamptonshire
Evening Telegraph gives a good description of Mike and his work.
Foreward by Michael Colton
When Michael Lee persuaded me to climb the tower at
Fotheringhay Church in Northamptonshire he was merely showing his missionary
enthusiasm for bells. Three steps up a ladder and I'm thinking it might
be better to get a chap to decorate the stair well, but there he was, convincing
me that 70 ft or so up the tower was the place every man ought to be at
least once in his lifetime.
There was also a woman minding her own business as she
did her ironing at her flat in Henry Penn Walk, Peterborough. She was suddenly
faced by Michael talking to her through her window. Do you know the significance
of the name he asked. Probably taking a firmer grip on her iron, she confessed
her ignorance. That earned her the full Lee treatment and she was ignorant
no longer. Henry Penn was the Peterborough bellfounder who, Michael admits,
took over his life fifteen years ago. As Steward of the Peterborough branch
of the Diocesan Guild of Bellringers, he had been interested in the subject
for years, but only when he hauled himself up Cotterstock Church tower
on official business did the ghost of Henry Penn move into his spare room.
What a day that was.
Up he went through a heavy oak trap door, then climbed
a woodworm ridden ladder to a second door. Showers of straw and bird droppings
covered him when he forced his way through. "A final heave and I was in
the bell chamber... pulling myself upwards through the cobwebs... enabled
me to observe in some kind of comfort...".
Michael must have felt like Carter and Carnarvon when
they found themselves in Tutankammon's tomb. He was observing Henry's bells,
the sight of which set him on the Penn trail. "His past life and my present
were now to run in parallel... we were nearly 300 years apart but were
to be friends in an intriguing way for the next 15 years...", he records.
Thousands of miles visiting churches where Penn's bells
hang, hours and hours breathing in the dust of old records, patient detective
work knitting together the Penn and Bagley family trees, have revealed
facts about Henry that even his mother never knew. And throughout the long
journey Michael has been helped by his first wife Marian, herself a expert,
who died in 1987, and his second wife Ann, whom he soon converted to his
missionary work.
His book may have a limited readership, but within that esoteric
circle it will take its place as an erudite piece of research. I suspect that
his beautiful map of the 100 churches and houses Penn worked, now on display
in Northamptonshire Records Office will one day be regarded as a work of art
in its own right-if it has not already achieved that status. Penn's bells still
speak out across the countryside (and the centuries), and Michael's book is
more than another chapter. A tribute to Penn. Certainly; but it is also a record
of the authors dogged determination to say "Thank You" to the man whose 300
year old legacy inspired him.
