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The Church Bells of Monmouthshire by Arthur Wright File 03 – Summary and Chronological Account The Chepstow Foundry, Addenda, Index – Pages 97 to 134 This document is provided for you by The Whiting Society of Ringers visit www.whitingsociety.org.uk for the full range of publications and articles about bells and change ringing 97 THE CHURCH BELLS OF MONMOUTHSHIRE. Bv ARTHUR WRIGHT, B.Sc. VII. SUMMARY AND CHRONOLOGICAL AcCOUNT. IN the county there are at the time of writing (1940) 556 bells, including a few in secular use, but of interest from their dates or inscriptions. They may be classified as follows :- Total. 1 Ring of 12 12 15 " " 8 120 22 6 132 7 5 35 6 4 24 10 3 30 40 ,,2 80 118 Single bells . 118 5 Small bells (ting-tangs) . 5 556 These may further be classified according to their periods :- Pre-Reformation uninscribed 4 , inscribed 181 Post-Reformation 16th century 3 17th 54 18th 154 19th 145 " 20th 95 Blank modern bells . 83 556 The percentage of surv1vmg pre-Reformation bells, 20/566, i.e. 3·5 per cent, is a figure which compares rather unfavourably with those of neighbouring counties, where these are known, i.e. Hereford­ shire 7, Gloucestershire 6·5, Worcestershire 5·5, Shropshire 4, Stafford­ shire 3; whilst it is much below such counties as Norfolk, 15 per cent in 1874, Suffolk 15 per cent in 1890, Essex 10 per cent in 1909. 2 1 Including two recast, but with their original inscriptions in facsimile. 2 From Lestrange, Raven, and Deedes and Walters respectively. 98 THE CHURCH BELLS OF MONMOUTHSHIRE The reasons for the disappearance of early bells are many and varied. Some, no doubt, though not as many as some writers have stated, perished at the Reformation, but these were chiefly of the monastic foundations, and some, even of these, were retained by the efforts of local authorities. The bells of the Monmouthshire monasteries were as follows :- Abergavenny 4 weighing 45 cwt. 2 qrs. Llantarnam 4 38 cwts. 3 qrs. 4 lbs. Grace Dieu · 3 55 cwt. -as given in the reports of the Commissioners. Those of Tintern were at the time already melted down, for we read that "on the 20th March 1541 William Wilson and Christopher Draye, the King's plumbers, were paid the sum of £8 for melting the lead and bells of the Abbey." [Cal. Let. and Papers, Hen. VIII., Vol. XVI, 745, f. 41.] Of the bells mentioned above, the four at Abergavenny were saved to that town by the action of the local authorities1 who claimed, and brought forward witnesses in support of their contentions, that the bells were town property bought by public subscription and both belonging to and used by the town without let or hindrance. (See p. 8.) (Arch. Camb., 1937, p. 300.) The four Llantarnam bells were taken away by William Jones, of Caerleon. 2 Most of the bells from the Monmouthshire monasteries were bought by a London grocer, John Coore, whose agent, Henry Evered, accounted to the auditor, Edward Gostwick, for them, including the three at Grace Dieu, and also certain friary bells. (One from Newport from the Friar's house there was sold to a Morrice Vaughan of the same town for XXXVs.)3 Other writers have stated that the various commissions set up by Edward VI and Elizabeth were intended not to preserve church goods, but to alienate them to the use of the Crown. This is not, however, entirely borne out by the facts, and it appears that the Commissions actually brought to light a number of instance~ of loss by neglect, or actual embezzlement .of church property, as has been shown by research among the reports of the Commissioners. In 1547 and 1549 commissions were issued to inquire into the quantity and value of church furniture and ornaments throughout 1 Similar action by the townsfolk of Brecon saved the three bells of the Priory there. 2 Arch. Camb., 1897, p. 285. 3 Land Revenue Records, 440/10 (Public Record Office), Arch. Camb., 1896, p. 264. THE CHURCH BELLS OF MONMOUTHSHIRE 99 England, and to forbid their sale or misappropriation. In 1552 another commission, and in January, 1553, a third, proved more effectual and the results are to be found in the Public Record Office1 more or less complete, though some counties are missing entirely, viz. Gloucester, Somerset, Rutland, Sussex, and Westmorland. Monmouthshire is also missing, and the county was probably out of the purview of the Commissioners. In the 1553 commission occurs the statement : "to sell or cause to be sold to our use by weight all parcels or pieces of metal! except the metall of great bell or saunse bells, in every of the said churches or chapels." 2 This has been misinterpreted to mean that the tenor and sanctus only were to be left in each church, whereas "great bell" probably meant what we should call steeple bells, and the intention was the sale of cracked bells and loose pieces of metal alone. This interpretation is supported by the presence in many English belfries (though not, unfortunately, in Monmouthshire except at Gwernesney and Redwick) of rings of several medieval bells.3 Again, later on in the same commission occurs also the following injunction, directed to deans, churchwardens, ministers, and parishioners: "that they ... do safely kepe unspoiled, unembesiled and unsold all such bells as do remayne in everye of the said churches and chapels, and the same to conserve untill our pleasure be therein further knowne. " 4 The death of Edward VI in July, 1553, and the succession of Mary, may have hindered any further alienation and thus the tendency of the com­ mission should have been towards the preservation of the earlier bells, and we must look elsewhere for the causes of the loss of so many of them since. Many were no doubt cracked in use (or misuse, as when chimed by their clappers, or "clocked") and when recast their earlier inscriptions were ignored or forgotten, whilst the institution of "change-ringing," towards the end of the seventeenth century, caused the recasting of many a ring of interesting I Those for Norfolk are contained in eleven books, eight of the series E.315, Aug. Misc., and the other three in E.ll7 Queen's Remembrancer Church Goods. See Inventories of Norfolk Church Goods, 1552, compiled by Mr. H . B. Walters, now in course of publication by Norf. and Norw. Arch. Soc. 2 Seventh Report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records, p. 312, quoted by T. North in Church Bells of Bedfordshire, p. 15. 3 E.g. in Norfolk~North Burlingham, St. Andrew (3), and St. Peter (3), Plum­ stead Magna (2), Banham (4), etc. [Inventories, p. 6, etc.] 4 Church Bells of Bedfordshire, p. 16. 100 THE CHURCH BELLS OF MONMOUTHSHIRE early bells, into a ring of six or eight lighter bells. Instances can also be quoted in many counties of the "embesilment" of bells by their lawful guardians, both before and after 1553,1 whilst bells have been frequently sold to repair or roof the church (and sometimes without the formality of a faculty). Many bells have also been inadvisedly recast, though this practice is much less common than heretofore. In several dioceses, since the War of 1914-18, advisory committees have been set up and no bell is recast without reference to campanological experts. In our county at least jive bells should be scheduled as "ancient monu­ ments," i.e. the two long-waisted bells at Gwernesney, and the one at Kemeys Commander, together with the interesting thirteenth century inscribed bell at St. Brides, N etherwent, and the beautiful tenor at Caldicot. There are other interesting bells in the county but those mentioned above should be preserved at all costs. The bells of the county may be best considered in the two natural divisions, pre-Reformation and post-Reformation., PRE-REFORMATION BELLS. Of the twenty-two of these bells which remain in the county (two recast in facsimile in recent years) four are uninscribed, but their shape, long-waisted with hemispherical crowns, fixes their date as late twelfth or early thirteenth century. [See Figs. 17, 18, and 20.] The fine pair at Gwernesney (Pl. IV, 1) still hang in their coeval or earlier double belfry, and although one has lost its tongue this is still to be seen at the neighbouring farmhouse. Their shape coincides closely with that of bells at Chaldon (Surrey), thirteenth century,2 and at the Bargello Museum, Florence, 1184.3 The Gwernesney bells are fully described on p. 29. Those at Kemeys Commander and Bettws N ewydd are apparently of rather later date ; about mid-thirteenth century. [See Pl. IV, ii, and Fig. 20, p. 32.] Of the eighteen inscribed bells, the earliest and most interesting is that at St. Brides, Netherwent, No. 1, with its inscription:- + ave ~eraia (31-lJiOIB PLn 1 Many cases are given in the Inventories, e.g. Tottenhill, Norf. , Md. that the belles in the Steeple were stolen on Seynt V alentynes even the xiii daye of !february a0 vto E. VI to (Norfolk Inventories, p. 40). 2 H . B. Walters, Church Bells of England, p. 19. 3 Ibid., p. 25. See also p. 359 for others of this period. THE CHURCH BELLS OF MONMOUTHSHIRE 101 in highly ornamented capitals of mixed Roman and Lombardic type (Pl. IX).l The presence of the Roman V, M, and N points to an early date, and the similarity of the bell to one recently discovered by Mr. W. J. Hemp, at Llanallgo, Anglesey, and fully described by him in the Anglesey volume of the Report of the Royal Commission for Ancient Monuments, bears this out.

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