St John's Church Soundproofing.

A Memory of Penge.

I believe it was around the 1980 period that I was working with South East London Probation & After Care service (SELPAC) that one of the projects I was asked to take on was to sound proof or at least reduce the sound level of the peal of bells at St John's church, high street, Penge.
Myself and some lads from the Community Service office took the task on and when I was first asked to do the job I noticed it was April the 1st, not a good start to such a requested job!
The idea was to fashion quite large shutters in the apertures in the bell tower where the sound would normally come out from as there had been complaints locally the sound of the bells was intrusive (why live near a church then?)
The shutters we made were about 5 or 6 feet tall and fitted snuggly in a frame, also made by ourselves.
The shutters worked quite well as it was tested by someone from a Ministry or other but the shutters could be opened if there was a wedding.
Health and Safety would have kittens if the job was needed now, thank goodness we lived in a more free society then as all enjoyed the task AND we were invited to ring the bells! It doesn't get much better than that AND once the bells got into a sort of unison that I termed "getting into the swing of things" literally, you could actually feel the tower sway!
Great time and great job!
We also put some "soakaways" in the grounds of St Paul's church that was some way at the back of the main high street, another interesting and useful task.

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