Bells ring out for tulip summit
A 23-BELL instrument will welcome delegates to the World Tulip Summit next week.
The carillon installed in the tower of the South Holland Centre, Spalding, will be played by Pinchbeck resident Jayne Wilds on Thursday next week to mark the summit.
The instrument was the only playable one of its kind in the UK until another was recently installed in York Minster.
But music teacher and organist Jayne will have her hands full with its complicated harmonies because it is missing two bells in the lower octave.
She has arranged the music herself which will entertain delegates from as far afield as Australia, China, Japan and the USA.
The carillon has a long history dating back to 1923 when Dr William Farrow and friends commemorated those who died in World War One with three memorials – a cenotaph at Ayscoughfee Gardens and a clock and carillon on the Corn Exchange.
A public appeal raised money for the clock and cenotaph but only enough money was raised to buy the bells, which were not installed until 1930 when an amateur-built playing mechanism was provided.
The Corn Exchange was eventually demolished and the carillon was restored when the South Holland Centre opened in 1974, but the keyboard or music roll used to mend the instrument wore out.
When the centre was refurbished in 1998 the instrument was restored in a bell tower and has since been played by a number of distinguished musicians.
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Weather for Spalding
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
