Josef Pokorník

“It is the kind of ground we called “blížina“. Kotovice, bricks were done of out that. And the hair of the calf and the beer instead of water. And that's pretty ... and wax. The form was made of it, and the ornaments, the reliefs were made of that. The first form was made, the inside was waxed. They called the material mud, and we used our hands to smooth the form. And then she had such a metalic sheet and stroked it all over to make the mold. And it was still burnt and warmed inside. Then it waxed as the fake bell was made, and there were the reliefs, the letters, and so on. Again, as it was done from that wax, then the material was used again and gradually glued. And coated using with wire, maybe three or four centimetres of material, and the weak wire wrapped around it. You understand, such a form ... and then mud and the mold again; there were up to ten layers. That is how large it was. And then when it was waxed, the fire was lit up under it again, the wax poured into that mold and into that fake bell, into that core. Then the whole thing was lifted, the inside of the bell broke out, and the centre and the cover, the cloak, were left. It was lifted up, checked and all faults were glued up. When it was put together, it was put down in the pit, where it sank into the sand so that the top was at the same level with the ground. Then it was filled with sand. You had to walk around stomping. And then the bell material was poured into that and it all took about half an hour or so."

"After the queue, when the Germans took the bells, people were not in the mood at all. We'll already make ones from steel. You know, the times were such that everything made of bronze was taken. The mood was such; they did not like it at all. And so together with the priest, he was called Bělík, so we thought we would have steel bell casted in Brno. There was nothing here; the beating of the clock was done on the wagon bumper. There was only a fifteen kilo bell, which rang when someone died, so it was like... Then we made a radio and the ringing was done via radio and it was enough for the people. Well there was not a single bell there, the Germans took them all. Then we came to the ecclesiastical secretary asking for the bell, and that was at the anniversary of 1100 years of arrival of Cyril and Methodius. Yeah, they let us do it: "Do it yourselves." It was already in the 1960s. Otherwise, the radio was ringing; using the gramophone record, you know what it was like, that kind of strange ringing, and especially when the needle was already dirty. It had to be regularly replaced; it was not as it is now. And so we discussed where to start with the bells. We went to Brno, I do not know which company it was, and we just wanted a steel bell. That's nice too, so we agreed to do it. Because my uncle was a priest and he had steel bells done too. Nobody takes them away. But people did not like that and demanded the bronze ones. And so we talked to the pastor and some Matěna told us that someone in Brodka was castubg bells for the first time. In the first year. I said: 'That is no problem.' So we went to Brodek, and we made such a friendship that we were almost a family. We saw what it looked like, so we ... some Mr. Buchta, Franz Havlicek, who was a bricklayer, so we've rebuilt it all and upgraded, built new kilns and casting winches. The bells were casted there, and so we stood behind the pulleys, behind that furnaces, casting together. We were all really wet, there was such heat there, around sixty degrees. We made the electrics there, we all put an electric boiler in and he said: "Well, boys, shall we make a bell in Rohatec?" I said: "But of course." So we casted two, Cyril and Methodius, we had permission to do so. So we did one of 160 pounds, and another of 152 pounds. Cyril and Methodius, we were delighted; all made of bronze. We were collecting copper, altogether a hundred kilos of copper of wires and boilers people were giving away. Then tin tubes, we were casting tin in little forms from fridge.”