The NASH was founded in 1845 and built as a Victorian ‘National School’, but its bell tower has been mysteriously empty for at least a century. Local records tell us that The NASH bell originally came from nearby Gayle Mill, where presumably it was first used to call mill workers in at particular times. But why did it disappear from The NASH? Where did it go? Thanks to Basil Allen for providing the picture that shows the bell tower empty as early as circa 1905.
Purple Creative Studio recently gave us some rapid-fire training in Adobe Creative Cloud, and as part of this we looked at how The NASH logo could be adapted to creative a simple motif for Story of Schools. In this motif (see below) we’ve restored the ringing bell - a resounding icon of the Victorian School. We've used green for growth, gold for the chime of bells (and young voices), and flowing ‘S’ tails to invoke the rivers that permeate the Dales and link The NASH will Gayle Mill, only two-minutes upstream via Duerley Beck.
Update October 2020: the bell has been traced! It now hangs in Hawes Primary School (pictured) where it was transferred c.1879 when The National School closed and its pupils went to the newly-built school at Town Head instead. Thanks to Dales Countryside Musuem for bringing this information to light.