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Barry Davis gave a very interesting and knowledgeable illustrated talk about the history of bells and ringing. He started by explaining some of the technicalities involved in bell hanging and the way the frame and wheel design made the swing of the bell allow control. We were also told that a minimum of three bells is required to create a tune.
Originally bells were used to call villagers and others to attend their church as required. They were usually simple, slimmer in shape than their modern counterparts, held by a wooden block with a spindle. The whole mechanism was primitive and difficult to control. Things began to change when the Reformation and the attacks on churches saw some bells removed and saved by villagers. From the 16th & 17th centuries the bells and their uses became more secular. They began to create different sounds for differing purposes, to announce breaks in the day for example. This need for varied sound helped develop the use of a wheel to control the speed of the swing and at first a quarter wheel was introduced which had become a three-quarter by the end of the 16th century and the full wheel during the early 17th century.
Villages started to compete with each other over the number of bells they had and this gave rise to itinerate bell founders who set up in a district to meet the local demand. In time some of these settled in a town. One such firm was that of Taylor & Son in Woodstock. The oldest surviving bell foundry is the Whitechapel Company founded in 1570.
Carillon bells were developed mostly for other countries. These are rung using a keyboard arrangement that causes hammers to strike the bells to produce a tune similar to a piano.
Multiple bells gave rise to the playing of tunes and the development of complex ringing patterns based up the number of bells involved. The ringers were often quite rough in the early days and were paid to ring at various church functions, funerals, weddings etc. There were many clashes between vicars and the ringers and eventually, particularly from the start of the Victorian age, rules were drawn up to control matters.
In addition to the official ringers groups of amateur ringers began to develop with clubs and societies being started. These began to travel to other bell towers and to ring and enjoy different combinations. They began to compete with each other, vying to see who could ring the most changes or the most accurately. Social activities were organised. Of course there were no women involved until around the 20th century and even then not many before the end of the 2nd WW.
Barry ended by telling us that there were private bells made in a miniature form with a fore-runner having been a north Oxfordshire farmer having had a sequence of small bells created for him and having the hung above his milking parlour. He also touched on the area of hand bells and their orchestras.
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