The Church Bells of Lancashire
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The Church Bells of Lancashire BY F. H. Cheetham File – 06: Corrections and Supplementary Notes 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 CH U l{CIl BELLS OF LANCASIlIEE. THE CHUl{CH DELLS OF LA NCASHll{E . lW F . H. CHEETHAM. W I N G to 111 Y being engaged in work with th e troops O since July, 1917, first in this country an d now in France, I am relu ctantly compelled to postpon e the co m ple tion of my catalogue of the older c hurc h bell s of L an cash ire unti l afte r the war. In th e sho rt time at my d isposal, wh ile on lea ve, I ha ve found it quite im possible to exam ine the bells in the hundred o f Amo underuess as I had hoped . I mu st , therefore, beg th e indulgen ce of my read ers. In the meanwhile I add a le w notes and correction s to what has a lready appea red. F . H. C. CO R I~ EC T I ON S A~ D S UPPLEl\lE NT.\RY r-;OTES. Pxur 1. (VOL. XXXI!.). Page :!G . HALE. 111 the Owen I\1SS., Xl anchestcr R efer ence Li brary (volume purchased after the index was pr inted), is a letter dated January 27th, 181j, fr0111 "\V. Stew art " to the Rev. Dr. Blackburnc, Thelwa ll, co n ta ining " An Account of the Expence of recasting Hale Church Bells and increasing the peal to six, by \Villiarn Dobson, Bellfounder, Down ham, N orfolk." The total cost was [291. 55. ad. Fur ibis reference I am indebted til Mr. 1': rno- 1 Axon. 110 Page 2tl, line 2 Irorn bot torn , [or "iJellcol," read" bell cot c. " Page 29, line 7 [rom bottom. john Scott was dead before II)S-f, as his will was proved in 16-1-7 (:;ee p. 101). It is possible, indeed very likeJy, that Jeffrey or Geoffrey Scott used the same initial stamp as john, and that the 1654 bell is his work. Page 48, line -I- from bottom. The word" reign" in the inscription Oil the waist belongs to the line above (see illustration). Page 53. Ln'EEI'OOL, ST. NICHOLAS. In the peal book of St. Martin's G uild, Birmingham, is an account of the opening of the ring of twelve at St. Nicholas' Church, Liverpool. Tile opening took place on june -1-th, 18q- "\lVhen a numerous assemblngc of amateurs were invited, and on the 6th instant, a beautiful Silver Cup, value Twenty Guineas, was presented by the Town for the best performance, and was adjudged to the Society of St. :\lanin's Youths, JJirmingham, for a touch of upwards of 3,000 grandsire cinques." On the following clay a corn plete peal of gr,lllcbire ci nques was rung oy members (of the same society, Unforrunatcly the cup bas disappeared (flinging IVvYld, .Jllne I I, 1<)'5)' Page 60. L1VJ::l{I'OOL, ST. PLTLH, note at bottom of page. The reference is to "The Bells of St. Peter's Church, Liverpool," by l\.eginald Threlfall Dailey, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., ill Trans. Hist, Soc. Lanes. and Cliesli., vol. lxvii., pp. 12.f-Lfo. This paper appeared in print after the publication of my account, but the substance of it bad been kindly cornrnunicatcd to me by Dr. Dailey. Page 6-1-. LIVERPOOL, ST. JOHN, fourth bell. See Dr. Dailey's paper as above. Mr. Charles IIIadeley, of the Municipal Museum, Wurriugton, wrote to me under date March r st, 11)16: "The Lell uf St. j ohn's, Liverpool, mentioned at lhc bul Lo m u[ p. 6·1, is IIUII' CHURCH BRL~S OF LANCASHIR~. IT' at the Liscard Hospital, but it does not belong there. The Corporation of Liscard claimed it as residuary legatees (or something of the kind) of Mr. Kitching man. Page 67. LIVERPOOL, ST. CATHARINE. See Dr. Bailey's paper as above, where five photographs of the hell and its decoration are given (pp. 125, 127, 129, 131). It was first proposed to have a new bell in April, 1914, when the intention was that, "if ,,·ays and means were forthcoming, the old bell should be taken down and a new one substituted," i.e. re-cast. The estimate for re-casting was £25-£35. Dr. Bailey tried to save the old bell, hut, "unfortunately, when the time came for taking it clown there was some difficulty as to who was to pay the cost of removal, and the bell was broken up by order of the church authorities." Page 71. \VEST DERBY. Line 4, for" Esquire," read "Es,(" Line 5, for "to\\'er 1888," read "Tower of this church in the year 1888." Line 6, for "Robert," read" Robertson." Mr. Robertson Glad stone, of Court Hey, was the son of Robertson Gladstone, elder brother of the statesman. Page 71. KNOTTY ASH. There is a photograph of the 1707 bell in Dr. Railey'S paper, cited above, p. 133· Page 72. line 18. For" bell-cot," read" bell-cote." Page 74. NEWCHURCH-IN-CULCHETH. Extract from the Constable's accounts [or the year June r st, 1718, to May r Sth, 1719:- p~ for Repairs of New Church Bell and repairing" of ye Schools on Twiss Green -....- £7 '9 10 (Lan. and cs-». AIlI. Noll'S, ii. Ifi2.) Page go, line 17. Since this was written I have found it second Clihllry hell at Tockholcs (see Part TTL). 112 CIIU HCI/ DELLS OF LA NC ,l SliIRE. Page 129, line 13, for " bell-cot," read "bell-cote." Page 133, lin e 5, for" 1914," read"January 25th, 1915 ." Page 140. CHORLEY. The followin g extract is taken from the Register of Chorley Parish Church (see Lan es. Par. Reg. Soc., vol, 38, p. 118) :- De cimo quarto Decembris, 1646. \Vei ghed at Ch or ley the great bell wch by our weights co me th to 770li bei nge broken in 43 peeces the same mellell was cast a t \Viga ll by Geoffrey Sc ott to wch was added 5 score pounds of new met tell a t the pryce of 8d pli \\'ch makes the whole weig h t to be 8li31i a nd po to the be lfoundr the castinge 81i & for the mcuell added 31i I SS wcll ill all is j j li I SS. Page 148. ECCLESTO~. The fourth bell appears to be a re-casting in 1802 of one of those ~Jl bells of whi ch some account is given in Part Ill., p. 57., Transue tions, Lancashire and Cheshire A ntiquarian Society, vol, xxxiv. Page 163. TARLETON. The first peal on th e new bells was rung on April loth, 1915, with th e bells half muffled as a token of respect to Bishop Moorh ouse, who died the previous day; a peal of grandsire triples, 5,040 changes, in three hours and thi rt een minutes. PART II. (VOL. XXXIII.). Pa ge 57. MA NCHE STER, ST. Ax ». There is a pe rsist ent legend, I can hardly call it a "tradition," th at th ere was orig inally a rin g of bells at St. Ann's Church, and that th ey were removed or ceased to be run g immediately after the reb ellion of 1745. A query in th e Manchester Guardian, November znd , 187'!, elicit ed this repl y:- I was infor med som e years ago that the bell s at St. Ann' s C hurch were rem oved at th e tim e of the Scottish Rebell ion in 1745, The bells were not rung afte r th e" Pretender " quilted Manchester , an d the regi ste rs of the ch urch were also rem oved to Ches ter (W . I-I· T yson, Wesley Terrace, Corn bro ok P ark), CHURCH BELLS OF LANCASHIRE. 1'3 It will be observed that this correspondent gave no evidence for his statement. He had merely becn "informed." By the use of the word "also" in the last sentence he would seem to imply that the bells were taken to Chester. TheMa1lchesterCityNne.s.~1aYlst.1915.printcd the followi ng C] ncry;- I have heard it said on Iairly good authority that 51. Ann's Church possesses a fine peal of bells, but that, owing to some restriction, they were not to be rung for one hundred years. Is there any truth in this '--T. PICKWRLL. I wrote to say that at the present Jay there is only one bell in the tower of St. Ann's, but made no comment on the legend. Later (july 24th, 1915) another correspondent wrote drawing attention to a passage in Canon Bardsley's Memorials of St. A 1111'S Church (p. 65):- A story was bruited that St. Ann's possessed a peal of bells, but in consequence of their having rung-in the Pretender they were condemned to perpetual silence-one only in future to be used for parochial needs. We need not trouble to refute this fable. The bell had been rung on that eventful morn, but it was a knell for the departure of the dead, not a peal for the coming of the llving. Many people of an antiquarian turn have been known to climb up into the belfry to behold with expectant eye those brazen-faced recusants of that loyalty of which Manchester is now so justly proud.