Have
you ever wondered, as you walked through a village just before the Sunday
service begins, how the bells were rung and how they produce their sound?
You might feel that bell-ringing is either an activity for quaint local
yokels or else so impossible that only mathematical graduates with muscles
of steel should apply. As a
visitor or a new-comer to a village with bells you might think that
visitors to the tower are not welcome, and that the church always has
enough ringers. This is far from the truth.
The
history of bells extends back almost to the dawn of civilisation, when
crude metallic objects were sounded to ward off evil spirits, to alter the
weather, or to mark festive occasions. In
China
the first bells were
cast 4,500 years ago. In
Europe
, the craft of
bellfounding began to develop in medieval times, and bells were hung in
towers specially built for them. To begin with, bells were hung mouth
downwards and in the rest of
Europe
this practice
continues. Here in
England
, it was realized that
by swinging the bell through a wider and wider arc, a progressively fuller
and richer tone was produced. To enable a bell to be swung in this way a
wheel was attached and a rope tied to the wheel, so that the ringer could
control the swing of the bell to some extent.
Diagram of a bell
Showing the wheel, which swings through an arc of 360°.
Each time the wheel swings full circle, bell strikes once.
The rope that runs around the wheel is used to pull the bell up
until it is facing upwards. (In
effect, upside down.)
Bellringing
The system of changeringing was
developed in
England
probably during the seventeenth century and is only used in towers in
England
and those countries that have a link with England
either by language or by history, in that they are or were part of the
Commonwealth.
Click
here for some interesting links to find out more about bellringing
