Bells, Bell Towers & Bell Ringing

[Kondoru]

There is a trade in bells...some are on Ebay, if you need a big bell.

(Quite coincidentaly I looked them up, after looking for pews)

and bells get moved from church to church. the ones from Merther in the Roseland peninsula in Cornwall are now at Tresilian.

 

[Stormkhan]

In a related fashion, in the small town of Seasalter - wedged on the Kent coast between Herne Bay and Whitstable - there's a small church that has no bell in the tower. Got removed decades ago for reasons I can't remember.
Legend has it that on dark winter nights, if there's a storm or high wind coming from the sea, you can hear the bell ring.
I once heard it myself and hurried to the church but the sound died before I got there. I think it was the wind carrying the sound of another churches bell ... but there aren't any close by.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Got removed decades ago for reasons I can't remember.

Church bells, along with railings were, I think, among the things collected for the war-effort. It is now widely-believed that there was no way to recycle these materials to produce metals good enough for armaments. The collecting went on as the visible austerity was said to be good for morale and solidarity. Bells were, in any case, silenced for the duration, except in the case where they were required to raise an alarm. :hide:

 

[ramonmercado]

Some rare survivors of the Reformation. Glad they weren't luthed.

National Museum of Ireland​

Three fifteenth century medieval bronze bells which once hung in the bellcote at St Mary’s Abbey Church, Howth, Co. Dublin have been donated by the Gaisford St Lawrence family to the National Museum of Ireland.

Bearing gothic inscriptions, these three bells have been a part of Howth’s history for centuries. They sounded the hours, called seafarers, and the people of the Howth peninsula to prayer for three hundred years before being taken to Howth Castle in the mid eighteenth century for their safety, where they have remained ever since.

The St Lawrence family were the Lords of Howth since the 12th century are likely to have commissioned the bells.
Very few late medieval bells in Ireland survived the Reformation when many were sold and melted down. It is even more unusual to have a set of such bells surviving from one church.
.

https://www.facebook.com/nationalmuseumofireland/posts/10158279211575069

 

[Kondoru]

I was reading about a village near here, in the 16th century they got a new bell, and before it was hung it was placed on the village green and filled with wine for the locals.