Wooden Shafted Clappers

Avon Ropes Ltd have been leading the way in clapper design since 2009 when we first developed our wooden shafted clapper design which we still use today.

We have made over 40 wooden shafted clappers, which can be found throughout the world.

Our first (prototype) timber shafted clapper was installed in 2009 and has so far been rung every Sunday for services, with numerous quarter peals and over 70 peals resulting in over 2.5 million clapper blows.

To date we have had no failures of bolts, clapper shafts, clapper ball castings or ball bearings; impressive given most of them are held together with three standard M8 bolts.

Wooden clappers are an asset for larger bells as they improve the 'go' of the bell and produce a better tonal quality. The clappers also improve the ability of a large bell to be rung up on the 'right' side.

For every clapper we supply, we take detailed static and dynamic measurements of the bell and its adjacent bells' characteristics, enabling the new clapper(s) to have the correct streamlined geometry and to ensure they fit with the other bells across the ring. We rarely supply ‘mail order clappers’ as we believe we can add value by undertaking a survey and designing in every case offering, a better solution.

We not only supply but we design clappers such that they work and meet two very important criteria;

We can design clappers in bells to permit large bells to go up right,

AND

so they strike at the right time when rung (not late or quick at both strokes)

All clappers are made from new materials; We do not re-use second-hand clapper balls. We have developed clapper balls specifically for use with a timber shaft and have these fitted in bells from 8cwt up to 50cwt. Our clapper balls are balanced by design with the timber shaft to ensure forces are kept to a minimum and increase longevity. We employ a ball bearing bush to nearly every one of the clappers we have produced. They are sealed for life and easily replaceable in the tower should any issues occur (to date, even our clappers with nearly 3 million clapper blows show no sign of wear to the bearings).

We have had no failures, whilst our system might initially cost slightly more, over a longer period of time we believe our solution offers excellent value for money.

Our Tenor clapper at St Mary-le-Bow, City of London, famous for the Bow bells, fitted, adjusted and set up in 2023. The tenor here is 42cwt (2131kg) and sounds in the key of C. The bell is is 5ft 1 inch (1.55m) in diameter.