The Bells of St. Michael's...

The sound of church bells on a clear Sunday summer’s morning is a quintessentially English one. The peal of St. Michaels has always been enjoyed by the vast majority of Cuxton's residents, and perhaps some of them might have noticed that the church bells were ringing for rather longer than usual this Sunday morning.

This is because a specialist team of ringers had committed to undertake a “quarter peal” of a bell-ringing method called “Plain Bob Doubles”, which took around 45 minutes (a video clip with sound illustrates about 30 seconds of that, as below...).

It seems that church bells have been rung at Cuxton since at least the fourteenth century. In 1866, when a peal of five new bells was placed in the tower, three older, cracked bells were removed. The treble bore the inscription:

+CRISTUS PERPETUE DET NOBIS GAUDIA VITE+

...which means ‘may Christ give us the blessing of eternal life’. On the crown of the bell, repeated three times, was a shield bearing three heraldic laver-pots (ewers) which dated it as later fourteenth century. The bell was believed to be the work of William Wodeward, a Kentish bell-founder who lived from 1395 to 1420.

The other old bell was apparently cast by Giles Reve, an Elizabethan bell-founder who worked from 1584 to 1592. The Cuxton bell was unusual for having the surname of the bell-founder omitted, the inscription reading:

BY WE GYLLES BELLFOANDER 1589

Giles Reve appears to have been a local man as his work is only found in the northern part of mid-Kent. In the Middle Ages, it was common practice for bell-founders to travel from church to church with their tools and materials, and for them to cast the bells in sand mould made in the churchyard.

The third bell was believed to be of 15th or early 16th century manufacture and bore the Latin inscription: 

+HAEC CAMPANA CANORA MAGDALENAE NOMEN GERIT+

("This tuneful bell bears the name of Magdalen").

These older bells were probably "chimed" when rung, that is, they were just rocked back and forth, which is the way church bells are usually rung throughout the world, with the exception of the UK (and its former colonies). In England in the seventeenth century, the style of "full circle" ringing was developed. The bells were spun until they almost reached their balance point at the top of their cycle, with the mouth of the bell pointing upwards. It was found that this gave much greater control over exactly when the bell sounded, allowing the subsequent development of "change ringing", a practice that produces the ever-changing peals that are so characteristic of well-rung English bell-towers. 

Traditionally, St. Michaels has always had a highly-competent team of ringers. While the ringers at many church bell-towers are content to ring simple rounds or “call changes”, the Cuxton teams have tended to be a bit more ambitious, being proponents of the complex art of “method ringing”

At the turn of the twentieth century, John Cogger was Tower Captain. He served in that role until 1919, when Charles Cogger took over until WW2. Ringing was temporarily stopped by order of parliament as a result of the war, but the bells were kept in good order during that period as they would have used as a means of warning in the event of invasion.

After the war, Jim Cogger took over as Tower Captain in 1945, at the head of a strong team of ringers composed of the old pre-war hands plus some younger enthusiasts.

The Rev. G. Taylor did not care for bells, causing a temporary break during 1951-1955, until a new team was formed after the Rev. Charles Rae’s institution.

Cuxton bell-ringers, 1956: L to R; Lorna Russell, Jim Cogger, Bernice Rogers, Harold Gregory, Peter Bond, Derek Church.

In 1964, local historian, keen bell-ringer and professional architect Derek Church discovered that the church tower was becoming dangerously unstable and needed extensive remedial work. Fundraising commenced and an informative pamphlet was produced, which outlined a brief history of the church and gave details of the tower repair work to be undertaken.

Cover of the 1964 "Tower Appeal" pamphlet...

As part of the repairs, the opportunity was taken to return the existing five bells to their 1866 birthplace, Mears and Stainbank of the famous Whitechapel Bell Foundry, for repair and re-tuning. (Alas, this historic foundry has long since closed…).

Scope of the 1964 church remedial work, as outlined by Derek Church...

At the same time, an additional new treble was cast by the Whitechapel Foundry, and mounted on a new steel frame above what became the No. 2 bell.

The repair work was completed by local building firm F. Hayward and Sons, and ringing recommenced with a complement of six bells rather than five, which allowed more comprehensive methods of change-ringing to be undertaken.

In 1964 after repairs were complete, yet another generation of the Cogger family took on the role of Tower Captain, Colin Cogger. His work eventually took him away from the area and others took up the mantle, but Colin is still very much around and still rings occasionally.

Here are a few facts and figures about the bells of St. Michaels: 

Bell no:	Weight (lb/kg)	Bell diameter (inches)	Note
1 (the “treble”)	400 / 181	23	F♯
2	432 / 196	24.75	E
3	501 / 227	26.63	D
4	591 / 268	30.75	C♯
5	687 / 312	32.88	B
6 (the “tenor”)	833 / 378	35.5	A

Bells 1, 2 and 3 at St. Michaels: No. 1 in the frame over No.2 with No.3 on the right...

Clockwise from left, bells 3, 4, 5 and 6 at St. Michaels...

Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a tightly-controlled manner to produce precise variations in their successive striking sequences, known as "changes".

Stickmen ringing "rounds": see how the stay and slider mechanism would prevent the bell from turning more than about 350 degrees - not that a competent ringer would "over-pull" to that extent...

Two forms of ringing changes have developed; Call changes and Method ringing. This would be a huge post if I were to go into the details of these: indeed, whole books have been written on the subtle and intricate art of change ringing, but a nice little summary can be found on good old Wikipedia (link here).

Looking at the mechanics of bell-ringing shows how the regular striking of a bell is dictated by the way it swings through almost (but not quite) a full circle. (Again, I don’t plan to go into the mechanics of church bells but if you are interested, it’s all explained very concisely - and with nice animated diagrams - here…).

Bells 4, 5 and 6 at St. Michaels: the wheel of No.3 is on the right

Church bells are very heavy and the time between strikes cannot be changed by much, as no bell-ringer would have the strength to suddenly put the brakes on a bell once it is swinging full circle. This obviously limits the practical change of interval between successive strikes – it’s why you can’t play tunes on church bells!

As I noted above, bell-ringing at St. Michaels has a long history. 

It was gratifying to see how warmly Cuxton’s residents received the resumption of the traditional Wednesday evening bell-ringing practice sessions after the lifting of remaining coronavirus restrictions at the end of February this year.

Practice nights are usually well-attended, but unfortunately it is becoming increasingly difficult to support traditional Sunday service ringing, as many of the ringers have commitments at other towers on a Sunday.

Several of Cuxton’s ringing team have recently had to retire from bell-ringing because of the frailties associated with old age. It is to be hoped that a few more new faces will go along to practice evenings on a Wednesday in an attempt to learn the difficult but rewarding art of church bell-ringing, and to carry on the tradition at Cuxton.

It would be sad if the passage of time finally achieves what world wars, tower repairs, the recent coronavirus lockdowns and even hostile vicars could not – the permanent silencing of the bells of St. Michaels. 

References:

1)            Dove’s Guide for Bell-Ringers, Cuxton entry

2)              Wikipedia: Change Ringing

3)              Cuxton – A Kentish Village, by Derek Church (published by Arthur J. Cassell, 1976, ISBN 0 903253 12 7)

4)              How Bells Work – Ilsingtonparish.co.uk