THE PRESENT RING

A sample of some bells, moving clockwise from the foreground -

1. A Rudhall bell cast in 1738 just before the episcopacy of Archbishop Charles Cobbe, whose name is cast on it.
   
2. The mouth down bell behind it is another Rudhall, recast by Murphy of Dublin in 1845 and with Murphy cast in the metal.
   
3. The next bell is also a Rudhall, recast by Taylor of Loughborough in 1884, who reproduced the original inscription, and added the Taylor name to the other side.
   
4. The right-most bell in the background is one of the more recent additions given by Henry Roe who funded the Victorian restoration of the cathedral. It is by J Murphy in 1877, and says so on the bell.

TOWER BELL RINGING

Like so many other bands of ringers throughout the world what the band can manage on a practice night or Sunday can vary dramatically from week to week and often we are usually just one or two ringers short of being able to make progress the way we would like to. In the past due to the fact that many of our ringers are still inexperienced we did not always have enough experienced people to disperse between the beginners and still have people who can ring the more difficult back bells properly. With the addition of lighter bells we can now ring 10 or 12 without having to worry about who can ring 'around the back'.

A large part of our ringing time is spent on the front eight of the sixteen, although latterly we have been ringing the back 10 of the middle 12 on Sunday mornings. We often ring Plain bob doubles on the front 5 between ringing calls on 10 or 12 , and also plain hunt on the front 8. It is mainly a call change band that are progressing towards change ringing.

One interesting note from an old attendance book says that just after the Cathedral was re-opened on the May 1 1878 the ringers were, on one Sunday morning "hunting a good many on Lovedale's principle". Exactly what this entailed is open to speculation! Was it some set of call changes or was it scientific change ringing?

Although our total number of ringers has been very low in recent years there has been a very successful recruitment campaign in the last year enabling the full potential of the augmentation to be realised. The new recruits are both loyal and punctual in attendance and this has made the difference in how well they have progressed as a group.

So to summarise here is the current ringing status:

• 25 members who attend at Sunday ringing (either am, pm or both)
• Some beginners at bell handling/rounds stage, 6/7 more at plain hunting stage.
• Sunday morning ringing is usually plain hunt / plain bob on the front 5 followed by rounds and calls on the front 8 followed by rounds and calls on one of the 12's. Sunday afternoon is usually calls on 8 or 10 with change ringing on 5 bells at some point in the session. We usually finish off by letting the back bells down in rounds back 4 or 5 bells)

In the 1920's and 1930's the band was numerically strong enough to ring the 10 bells on most Sundays. Looking back through the old attendance books yields some interesting footnotes to the general ringing.

For example "July 2nd, 1922 no ringing due to rebellion". "August 27th, No ringing owing to the death of Michael Collins." In those days the ringers were paid (on a quarterly basis) for ringing, and fines were imposed for late coming or unexplained absences. The payment to the Christ Church ringers goes way back to ringing the curfew "Bow Bell" in the 1500's.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BELLS

The first record of bells being cast in Ireland is referred to in the book of Obits where John Kyrcham a brother of the congregation of Christ Church Cathedral is said to have cast "three great bells" around 1420. Every century after this has seen further modification and enhancement to the peal. Sometimes the modifications were accidental as for example in the 1597 when 144 barrels of gunpowder were accidentally ignited and exploded on Wood Quay which is only about 100 yards from the tower!

In 1670 a ring of six bells hung for full circle ringing were provided by Roger and William Perdue of Bristol in partnership with Irishmen William and Tobias Covey and were rung for the first time in July of 1670.

The next major event to happen was when these six bells were completely replaced by a new ring of eight cast by Abel Rudhall of Gloucester with a tenor of circa 26 cwts in the key of D. In the Chapter Acts book of Christ Church Cathedral a record states that, "June 18th 1739, Agreed and ordered that five pounds English be paid to Mr. Baker as a gratuity over and above the £15 agreed to be paid to him for coming from Gloucester and overseeing the hanging of the bells in this church". On a more tragic note one of the bell hangers lost his life when a bell fell on top of him when they were being installed in the tower.

Along with other work done around the period 1844 / 1845 (new turret clock installed by McMaster of Dublin) the 3rd and 5th bell of this eight were re-cast by Murphy of Dublin much to the satisfaction to the Dean as can be seen from the letter to Murphy's bell foundry in James's St. shows. "December 1845, Sir - The Dean and Chapter..... were not aware when they employed you, at different times, to recast two of their Church Bells, and to adopt them to the tones of eight in the diatonic scale that such an attempt had ever before been made in Ireland. I am happy to say that in both cases you have thoroughly succeeded.....Charles Kildare, Dean of the Cathedral."

The 1870's brought a big advancement in the scope of music that the ringers of Christ Church could provide the Cathedral with when at the time that a major restoration of the cathedral was taking place the peal was augmented giving Ireland its first peal of ten and included an extra bell for for a tune playing machine provided by Gillett & Bland.

What is normally done to augment a ring of eight to a ring of ten (i.e add two extra treble bells i.e higher pitched and lighter) was not done in this case. Instead, extra semi-tone bells, a new treble and a new tenor were added so that the fine eight that Rudhall provided in 1738 were to form the basis of the new heavier ring of ten, at that time the heaviest peal in the country.

Immediately after this major overhaul the additions can be seen by comparing details of the old eight which became the "light eight" or now more commonly called "the middle eight."

The Murphy bell foundry was again called upon to provide the bells but the new oak frame and the new fittings were supplied and installed by Gillett & Bland of Croydon. In the centre of the frame an extra bell was hung (note B- flat) which whose sole function was to increase the musical scope of the new tune playing machine / carillon.

^^^^^^^ = Original bells         ******* = Bells added in 1878

After only another 6 years it was discovered on Christmas Eve 1883 that the #7 th (cast by Abel Rudhall) was cracked and subsequently re-cast in Taylor's bell foundry, Loughborough Leicestershire in 1884. Apart from the 9th being re-hung on a new metal headstock in 1916 there was no major work done on the bells until 1936 when Gillett & Johnston re hung the bells on modern ball bearings and at the same time took the flat 4th away (which was hung dead in the centre of the frame) as by this time the Carillon / Tune playing machine had been sold.

In 1979 the entire peal was dismantled and taken back to Loughborough for re-tuning and re-fitting. During this work when the canons were removed from the Murphy Tenor of 1877 the bell foundry reported that the bell was porous and should be re-cast. It may be of some interest to point out the difference between bell foundries and the 'profile' they give their bells. The Murphy tenor was only c.36 cwts although it was always estimated to be heavier because judging by the diameter of the mouth and comparing this diameter to the weight of similar sized bells it 'should' have weighed between 38 and 40cwts. Taylor's recasting was only 1/2 " greater in diameter across the mouth of the bell (63"), but after tuning weighed 45-0-20 . The bells are tuned to the key of B.

Between 1979 and 1996 nothing much was done to the bells apart from some preventative but mostly corrective maintenance carried out by the various steeple keepers. Due to the closure of St. Andrews church in Suffolk street a bell was rescued which weighs approximately 5 cwts. This bell was installed back into the centre of the frame in the very space vacated by the old 'flat fourth' in 1936. Inscribed on the bell is Peace and good neighbourhood / A.R / 1753. So this Abel Rudhall bell is now with 5 other bells of the former Gloucestershire bell foundry, in Christ Church Cathedral. It is used as a service bell for the Eucharist 12:45 pm - 1:10 pm. The way it is sounded involves a special clapper inside the bell which is motivated by an electromagnet. A control box on the wall in the chapter room is where it is 'rung' from.

Since late 1999 the details of the bells have been modified again.

Seven new bells (all higher notes than we had previously) were installed. This enables us to ring three different 12 bell combinations in the keys of F# C# and B. Numerous 8's and 6's are also derived from this arrangement. All 19 bells were rung for the purpose of setting a new world, the greatest number of church bells rung full circle from one tower at one time. There was some surprise at how all 19 actually sounded together. The range of notes and the location of the three semi-tone bells provide an amazing effect.

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