Gents Mag 1829 part 2 p.503
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Gentleman's Magazine 1829 part 2 p.503
two others ten each, the fourth eleven, and the fifth twenty-four. A succeeding Prior in the same century set up a bell in the clock house, which required thirty-two men to ring it. 'In the Abbey of St. Edmondsbury,' says John Major, the Scots historian, 'is reported to be the greatest bell of all England, though in England is a vast number of bells of the finest tone.' 'In the priory church of Christ Church, Aldgate, London,' says Stowe, 'were nine bells well toned.' The glory of Oxford was the peal of Oseney Abbey, consisting of five. Their names were Douce, Clement, Hautileve, Gabriel, and John. Stowe gives the following account of the celebrated bells of St. Paul's Cathedral: 'Near unto the schoole in St. Paul's Church yarde belonging to the Cathedral church was a great and high clochier or bell house, four square, builded of stone, and in the same a most stronge frame of timber, with foure bells, the greatest that I have heard. These bells were called Jesus bells, and belonged to Jesus Chappel of the Cathedral. The same had a great spire of timber covered with lead, with the image of St. Paul at the top, but was pulled down by Sir Miles Partridge, knight, in the raigne of Kinge Henry VIII. The common speech then was, that he did set 100l. upon a cast of dice against it, and so won the said clochier and bells of the King, and then causing the bells to be broken as they hunge; the rest was pulled downe.' Of the great size and weight of conventual bells, we may form some notion, from the accounts of the Commissioners, at the Dissolution, of the various sales of bell-metal. In that of Christ Church Cathedral, Canterbury, in 1540, is the following memorandum: 'Parcel of five bells late in the great belfraye, containing 24,600 lb.' The greatest bell of York Minster, before the Reformation, weighed 6600lbs. The heaviest bells now in England are the following: Clock bells not rung in Peal. Christ Church, Oxford ... 17000lb. Exeter ... 12500 Lincoln (the best in England) ... 9894 St. Paul's Cathedral ... 8400 Gloucester ... 6500 Canterbury ... 7500 Beverley ... Of these, four belonged to great conventual Churches, viz. Christ Church, which came from Oseney Abbey; St. Paul's, which originally, it is said, belonged to Westminster; Gloucester, and Canterbury. There are some other clock bells remaining, but of inferior weights and size. There is a bell of this sort at Tonge Church in Shropshire, which was a collegiate church. It weighs about 4000lbs. Some of the heaviest bells now rung in Peal. Exeter Cathedral, in the south tower, a peal of ten; tenor ... 7552lbs. St. Mary le Bow, London, peal of ten; tenor ... 5300 York Minster, peal of ten; tenor ... 5300 St. Saviour's, Southwark, peal of twelve; tenor ... 5100 St. Mary Radcliff, Bristol, peal of eight; tenor ... 5100 Wells Cathedral, peal of ten; tenor ... 4400 St. Peter's, Mancroft, Norwich, peal of twelve; tenor ... 4100 Christ Church, Spitalfields, London, peal of twelve; tenor ... 4400 Sheffield, peal of ten; tenor ... 4100 St. Michael, Cornhill, London, peal of twelve; tenor ... 4000 St. Martin's, Birmingham, peal of twelve; tenor ... 3600 St. Giles, Cripplegate, London, peal of twelve; tenor ... 3600 Shrewsbury, St. Chad, peal of twelve; tenor ... 3400 St. Martin's in the Fields, London, peal of twelve; tenor ... 3400 St. Michael, Coventry, peal of ten; tenor ... 3100 St. Maragaret, Lynn, peal of 8; tenor ... 3000 St. Leonard, Shoreditch, London, peal of twelve; tenor ... 3000 Cambridge, St. Mary's, peal of twelve; tenor ... 3000 There are in the kingdom some very heavy ancient peals of six and five bells. Amongst the most remarkable are those of Sherbourne, Abbey, Dorset, the tenor of which weighs about 3600lbs; Bampton, Oxfordshire, tenor 3000; St. Mary's, Oxford, &c. Weights of some foreign Clock Bells. The famous bell of Moscow ... 43200lbs. St. Peter's, Rome (recast in 1785) ... 18667 Florence Cathedral ... 17000 |
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