This Scepter'd Isle

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Writing about the Church of St. Anthony in Roseland, England.

In dismantling the old Saxon tower to install a steeple about a hundred years ago, the old bell crashed down, smashing the tiles in front of the altar. When examined by experts, it was found that the bell was not even scratched, and was apparently made of wrought bronze, harder than tempered steel. The last people knowing the secret formula for this hardest metal were Priests of Ammon. The bell could have been brought to Cornwall by the Phoenicians. It was reinstalled in the steeple and remains there still. Its note is ‘G’, and unlike other bells it never varies, is never re-cast, and does not fade in semitones.

Snowy days on film

“That morning light” by // Daniel Casson

Settle, Yorkshire, England

Student residences, University of East Anglia, Norwich

1968

Denys Lasdun and Partners