“Castello Budgenor” is the name of my small ring of 5 bells hung for the “Ambrosiano” style, which is commonly used in areas of Northern Italy, such as my lovely region, Verbano Cusio Ossola (see here my database for all towers in that region).

The bells were originally owned by Jason Burnet based in Little Abington in Cambridgeshire, named “The Fenland Campanile”. From my understanding, they were never hung. On the 7th of September 2022, I was caught by an advertisement on Facebook for 5 small servants bells for sale. I had the idea of making my own small model ring of bells for a while and thought this would be the best opportunity of finding suitable bells. I contacted Jason and soon after I had purchased them for a very good price and a couple of days later they arrived! I was happy to find that they sounded tuneful and were the perfect size for what I was looking for!

I didn’t do much with them for quite a while. I had temporarily hung them on the rail in my wardrobe and rung them hung dead. That wasn’t until the following summer of 2023 where I took them with me to my family home just above Verbania where I had the intentions of completing the project of hanging them!

I had designed the headstocks and wheels and their dimensions were based on the proportions with the bells diameter. All bells have the same design apart from bells 1 and 3 which didn’t have cannons, so a more solid headstock design was used. Over the course of the summer, me and my father completed the project. The bells swing slowly on a shaft of threaded rod with ball bearings, and the swing is slowed down by lead counterweights on the headstock, typical of the style.

After they were completed in Italy they were taken to their home in Easebourne. On Saturday the 18th of May 2024, they were rung for the last time in Easebourne and taken to their new home in Midhurst.

The bells are ringable in a few ways:

• Pulling the ropes to ring at Distesa (similar to “continental style”, slow counterbalanced random swinging)
• Pulling the ropes or ringing directly from the wheels to ring at Concerto (when the bells are rung up and ring scales, a bit like call changes in a way)
• Connecting the clappers to the small wooden keyboard to ring tunes “a festa”

The tenors weight is roughly equivalent to 10oz, or 0-0-0.62

The back 4 are made of bronze whilst the treble is made of brass.

The 3rd appears to have been boared, as there are visible grooves inside of it, perhaps explaining it’s light weight.

How the bells were first rung when they arrived, whacked with pencils!

Bells 3, 4, 5 and 2 awaiting their headstocks to be made

The bells having been completed before the frame was built

The installation, all 5 bells in their frame at Easebourne

The bells in the car on their very short journey from Easebourne to Midhurst