The bells of Truro Cathedral are set to ring out again over the city after six months of silence, as repairs to the storm damaged north west tower near completion.
On the evening of Valentine’s Day Cornwall was experiencing some of the worst gales in living memory and at Truro Cathedral the wild winds blew out a stone mullion, a slender pillar between an arch, on the North West Tower that fell to the ground below.
The cathedral architiect Izaak Hudson, came down from Bristol to undertake an initial inspection from ground level and plans were put in place to erect scaffolding to reach the high level tower to make it safe.
Closer inspection of the stone from the scaffolding revealed that it was in a worse state than anticipated.
Izaak said: “The falling mullions indicated a problem with a specific element of the original architect’s 1880s design. The exposed Bath stone mullions, being light in weight relative to their length, haven’t coped very well with the sideways forces exerted on them by the swirling winds at high level. It was decided that the safest course of action was to remove all 32 spirelet mullions on the Northwest Tower and it is this work that is nearing completion.
"It is interesting to note that the design of the spirelets on the Southwest Tower do not have mullions. As both towers were erected at the same time, in 1910, this is likely to be a deliberate architectural quirk. If one looks up at the two towers from High Cross then another architectural quirk can be noted. The keystones at the head of the arches on the south tower have trefoil (three) heads while the ones in the north tower have quatrefoil (four) heads.
"By removing the mullions in the north tower and inserting larger stone quatrefoil keystones this will make for a much more durable repair."
It is anticipated that the work will be completed by November and Wilkes Walk will again be closed to the public while the scaffolding is removed. Soon after that, the bells in the tower will be able to ring out across the city for the first time in four months.
The project has cost £130,000 with the repairs being funded by the government’s World War One Centenary Fund.
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