Over the last few weeks, I have been documenting the conservation of a commemorative Peal Board at the Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas on the Pier Head in Liverpool.
The 19th century board records the details of a peal that was rung on the bells on November 9th, 1850. It is the oldest Peal Board in the city and unfortunately, over the last 162 years, the board’s visual appearance had deteriorated to the point were it was unreadable, due to the accumulation of grime and the yellowing of the varnish.
Local fine art conservator, Vanessa Andrew, was commissioned to return the board to it’s former glory. The picture above shows Vanessa close to completing the work and below, you can see more photographs of the work in progress.
I stumbled across this and was overjoyed to see the restoration work on the peal board. This William Thistlewood was in fact William Edward Thistlewood (4820 -1874), my gt gt grandfather. How lovely to see a record commemorating his name. I also found a monument in St Bees’ church, Cumbria dedicated to the Liverpool bell ringers and that one also bore his name. William Edward’s father William (1777- 1852) was also a noted bell ringer, both in Birmingham where he was born and married his first wife and also in Liverpool and surrounding districts. William Thistlewood was married to his second wife in Liverpool in 1818. She was Agnes Bryers from Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmoreland. Later generations of Thistlewoods were all keen bell ringers. One great-grandson of William Edward Thistlewood mentioned on this peal board was instrumental in saving Francis Xavior church from demolition in the 1970s. He organised a petition and the church was subsequently saved. Thank you for the story and images. I can now add this to my other Thistlewood information.