Monday 9 January 2012

Brief History of the Bell Pull

In 1744 during the reign of George II, a London periodical advertised the invention of a bell system that was destined to change the way that modern, well to do houses were run. The invention would afford the owners of the house more privacy and give them greater flexibility over the day to day chores their servants performed.

Before this bell system was conceived, a servant (normally male) would be present either outside or just inside the entrance door to any main room, waiting to obey their owners commands. A servant’s life during this era was not an easy one; electricity hadn’t been invented, so fires needed tending throughout the day for heating, washing and cooking. Candles and oil lamps needed lighting and looking after, just a few of the duties that required the servant to be present at all times. 

The new bell system worked with copper wires and pulleys. A brass handle was mounted on the wall (next to the fireplace or chimney-piece) when the handle was pulled it would operate a sprung bell outside the room. Normally there would be a bell allocated to each room in the house as well as one for the front door, so a panel would be mounted either in the servants quarters, in the hallway  or kitchen, with all of the bells fixed to it. Each bell would have a label under it to indicate which room it was pertaining to and when the servants heard a bell ringing they could quite easily see which room required their services.

The invention of the bell system allowed servants to carry out other important chores below stairs and still be available should they be summoned by their superiors to carry out a task or visitors ringing the front door bell. It also gave the owners of the house their privacy back as they no longer required a footman to be ever present.

The Victorians took the bell pull system to another level, wires running in copper pipes were concealed behind plasterwork or under floorboards, they also used sprung pulleys so the wires could turn corners thus allowing the bells to be situated further away from the main rooms in the house. The external bell pull was either a rod mounted on the wall adjacent to the main front entrance door or a Pull Knob similar to our Claverley Bell Pull  - All of our Bell Pulls are reproductions of Victorian originals.