The Bell Tolls

My name is Barry Coyston and I am chairman of Fawley Mensshed. We have been open since 1st  September 2018 and we already have approximately 60 members. We often get asked if we can repair some unusual items; for instance, broken chairs, 2 local church pianos, even broken tools.

Three months ago, a rather grimy bell was brought in by a Fawley Resident, with an unusual history to it. The bell was recovered from a damaged house, possibly in Lascaux village near Montignac in the Dordogne, France in 1941. Please remember France was at that time under German occupation and the Dordogne was ruled by Marshal Petan. On 12th September 1940, 18 year old Marcel Ravidat was walking his dog around the village when the animal fell into a hole and during the rescue of the dog Marcel discovered the now world famous Lascaux Cave Complex.

Marcel immediately summoned three of his friends to explore the caves. These friends were Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel and the youngest, Simon Coencas. Simon and his family were all Jewish and a few hours after this cave adventure they were forced to flee the area (and France) because German troops were rounding up all Jews regardless of age. Simon escaped; regrettably the rest of his family did not. Their eventual fate is not recorded; they may have become forced labour, or even worse sent to a concentration camp like Auschwitz. All records for this area were "lost."

The Four Friends

Simon Coencas eventually returned to France to meet President Mitterrand and the other intrepid cave explorers, by now, Simon was over 60 years of age. The meeting was for the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the Lascaux Cave Complex. Regrettably within just a few years, 3 of the explorers were dead; only Simon Coencas survived into the 21st Century.

Moving quickly to the end of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st, the son-in-law of the person who brought the bell into Fawley Mensshed became director of communications for the government departments throughout France and in particular the Dordogne. Part of his responsibilities was the Lascaux Caves. Due to the original cave paintings being severely affected by carbon dioxide, heat and humidity which were created by 1,200 visitors per day to the cave complex, the cave had to be closed to the public. A copy of the main hall art work and paintings was created and called Lascaux 2. This was followed by Lascaux 3 which is nomadic version of Lascaux 1 and allows the world to share the wonders of the cave complex. Latterly, Lascaux 4 was created and it was to these inaugurations that Simon was invited. He gave many interviews to the worlds' press regarding the original discovery of the caves.

It is believed the bell was hidden in the cave complex to save it from the occupation troops. It again appears in the hands of Simon, in the last years of the 20th Century or perhaps the early years of the 21st; by this time Simon had become firm friends with the Director of Communications. Simon was now living in Fawley Parish and it was during a visit to Simon by the director, that the bell was presented to him. Simon explained the recent history of the bell and its recovery. Simon, of course, always intended the bell and the bell cote (the wooden housing for the bell) restored but time evaporates!

On presentation to the director, a promise was made that on refurbishment the bell and housing was to be returned to the Dordogne and Lascaux and absolutely nowhere else.

Simon Coencas

Simon's gift to the director set in motion a whole chain of events that are now forming a complete circle. The father-in-law of the director, over a glass or three of local wine agreed to restore bell and cote. The farther-in-law is no restorer and firmly believes the offer was the wine talking! On seeing a leaflet for Fawley Mensshed he decided to call in and convince us we were the people to do the job. The father-in-law is a Fawley resident and when he brought the bell in, he was able to supply some French Oak (second hand) to hopefully complete the 'cote.' I, after studying the bell decided to ask one of our members, Tony Roberts, to take on the restoration project and he even had some French oak available to finish the job. A design was agreed upon, between Tony and our Fawley resident and the job was completed by the end of March. One thing we could not do was remove the grime and fire damage from the bell - this we were pleased not to do!

During the first week of April, Tony invited our local resident into the Mensshed to collect the bell and cote - in typical TV fashion we covered it with a coat and whilst I talked to the resident the cover was slowly lifted off. It took the resident a couple of minutes to recover his voice!

I am delighted to say, in its cote, over the next few weeks the bell will make its way back to Lascaux to be rehung on a suitable wall.