The Church Bells of Lancashire BY F. H. Cheetham File – 05: Part V The Hundred of Lonsdale 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 BELL-COTE AT CL\CGHTO::'\, ::'\E.l.R !..-\:\CASTER. Frn'.ll an c·ngra-.ing by R. Langton, in I'alali>te .Yote Boak, iv, 12t. \The larger :}f thic two bdts, <1"ted q9G, is th(; earliest dated beU in E"gbnrl.) 1 z5 THE CHURCH BELLS OF LANCASHIRE. BY F. H. CHEETHA'.\I, F.S.A. PART V. THE HUNDRED OF LONSDALE. FOREWORD. WITH the Hundred of Lonsdale my catalogue of the bells in the older churches of Lancashire is completed. The work was begun before the War and in preparing the first instalment for the printer in April, 1915, I expressed the hope that the whole would be completed by 1918. Unfortunately the course of events did not allow of this, and after-war conditions have made it impossible to proceed with the printing of the later instalments on the same scale as the earlier ones. The notes on which the following pages dealing with the Lonsdale Hundred are based were made chiefly in the summer of 1920 and spring of 1921 1 and what I have written must be taken to refer to those years. In lgo6 the late Dr. Raven stated that "practically nothing " could be said about the church bells of South Lancashire, but North Lancashire had "begun to yield its treasures " as a result of the. researches of the late Mr. Harper Gaythorpe in the Furness district.1 The J. The Bells of England, by J. J. Raven, D.D., F.S.A. (The Antiquary's Books, 1906), 183. 126 TIIE CIIC:NCJI IJELLS OF Ll.YC.ISJIINE reproach contained in the first part of this statement I daim already to h a n~ removed, and in presenting this last instalment of my "annotated schedule" it 'falls to me to complete what ::\lr. Gaythorpe began more than twenty years ago. It . " ·as not "South Lancashire " only of \Yhich "practically nothing" could be said, but all Lancashire south of the Sands. In introducing this series of papers in 1915 I stated that it would be necessary to hold over a summary of .i:esults until the ,,·hole of the county had been dealt with, and I expressed the hope that I might be permitted to add this final chapter as well as to give some account of the Lancashire bell founders. Something of the kind seems necessar): .to complete the \vork. A~ on previous occasions my thanks are due to all who ha\'tf assisted me in my investigations and especially to those incumbents who have so readily afforded me facilities for examining the bells under their charge and in some cases for access to vestry minute books and church,rnrdens' accounts. In expressing my thanks for the last time I recall many acts of kindness and expres­ sions of interest and goodwill which will always be a happy memory. \Vhere so many have helped it would be invidious to mention names. ~ly thanks are also due to Mr. S. B . Gaythorpe, of Barro,\·-in-Furness, for much local information and for permission to use his late father's published writings on the church bells of the Furness district; to Viscount Cross for permission to inspect the medi~val bell at Eccleriggs; to the Rev. Canon Elsee, M.A., for the loan .of rubbings; to ~Iessrs. :Mears and Stain bank, of \Vhite­ .chapel, and ~Iessrs. John Taylor & Co., of Lough­ borough, for information regarding bells cast by them; and to ::\lr. H. B. \Valters, :\I.A., F .S.A., who, as before, has helped me in many ,,·ays and has again been good .enough to read o,·er the proofs. In formC'r instalments an endeavour has been made to THE CHURCH BELLS OF L1 tYC:ISIIIJIE 127 reproduce by suitable type something approaching the style of lettering of the inscriptions. It is never easy to do this quite satisfactorily, but the printer has overcome many difficulties. Owing, however, to the cost incurred it has been found necessary to reduce the number of the founts of type used. I regret this, but it cannot be helped. As regards pre-Reformation bells, it being impossible to reproduce all the various forms of m e di~val letters found in the inscriptions, one fount of type (JI 8) is used to indicate Lombardic capitals, or Gothic majuscules, and another (a b C) to indicate black letter, or Gothic minuscules. The attempt to distinguish the artistic lettering used by the Rudhalls and some other founders in the eighteenth century is maintained, as well as the "'lower case ' letters of the Ashtons ·of '1Vi-gan, ·but the various forms of lettering (Roman and Gothic) found on modern bells are now represented by one type only­ small Roman. Except where otherwise stated, all the inscriptions have been copied and the diameters measured by the writer, who has personally thus examined 94r bells in 248 churches. F.H.C. THE HUNDRED OF LONSDALE. The Hundred of Lonsdale falls naturally into two distinct parts separated by the estuary of the river Kent and kriown respectively as Lonsdale North and South of the Sands. The latter, or Lonsdale proper, comprises all the Lancashire portion of the Lune valley and extends southward as far as the river Cocker and the upper course of-the \Vyre. On the north its boundary is vVestmorland. North Lonsdale consists of the districts of Cartmel and Furness, and is physically pa[t of the Lake District. Ecclesiastically both parts of Lonsdale belonged to the diocese of York before the Reformation, but were assigned ·with the rest of the county in r541 to the new diocese of Chester. On the creation of the See of 12S TllE C/lCRCll I!f:U_.;;; OF LISC.lSJlIRE Manchester in 184j Lonsdale South of the Sands 1 was included in the new diocese, ''"hile the deanery of Cartmel and Furness, othenYise Lonsdale ::\orth of the Sands, was transferred to the diocese of Carlisle. Since 1847, there­ fore, the two portions of Lonsdale have been ecclesiasti­ cally separated, and chiefly for this reason it will be best, in dealino- with the Church Bells of the Hundred, to treat 1'> North and South Lonsdale as distinct and separate are~s, as indeed they geographically are. Their ecclesiastical separation seems likely soon to cease with the creation of a new Korth Lancashire diocese, but at the time of writing Korth Lonsdale is in the diocese of Carlisle and South Lonsdale in that of l\Ianchester. As the greater part of the diocese of :\Ianchester has already been dealt with it naturally follows that Lonsdale South of the Sands should be taken first. SECTIO:s I. SouTH Lo:-.;snALE. Lonsdale South of the Sands comprises the ancient parishes of Bolton-le-Sands, Claughton, Cockerham, Halton, Heysham, Lancaster, Melling, Tatham, Tunstall, Warton, and \Vhittington. It lies wholly within the diocese of Manchester and the Archdeaconry of Lancaster, and includes the Rural Deanery of Tunstall and part of that of Lancaster. There were forty parishes in South Lonsdale in 1921. The pre-Reformation chapels are represented by the following churches : Arkholme, Caton, Ellel, Gressing­ ham, Hornby, Leck, Over Kellet, Overton, Silverdale, Tatham Fell, and \V yresdale. The ancient chapel of St. Patrick, at Heysham, is now in ruins. Lancaster Parish Church is in direct descent from the church of the Benedictine Priory of St. l\Iary, and there were als~ two friaries and a hospital at Lancaster. Other monastic 1. Ecclesiastically ' such parts of the respective deaneries of Kendal and Kirkbv Lonsdale as are in the county of Lancaster.' THE Cll U RC'll ll EU .S OF Lt.YCASlllUE 12<) establishments in South Lonsdale were: Cockersancl Abbey, Cockerham Priory, \Vyresdale Abbey, and Hornby Priory, but of none of these does the church surviYe. A chapel at Aughton \ms probably in existence before the Reformation, but the date of its foundation is not known. Only four new churches appear to have been built in South Lonsdale during the eighteenth century, and t\\·o of these were in Lancaster-St. John's (1'j54) and St.. Anne's (1796). The other two were at Poulton-le-Sands, now known as l\forecambe (Ii45), and at Littledaie, near Caton (1752). The present series of papers, as previously explained, is concerned only with bells in churches founded before the end of the eighteenth · c~ntury . .f As·regards -the lnvent-0ries of 1552 in South Lonsdale only five returns have come to light-Bolton-le-Sands, Gressingham, Halton, Tunstall, and 'i\Thittington. They are all dated September 19, 1552 .1 · The oldest bell in South Lonsdale is the larger of the two at Claughton, which is .. dated I 296, and is of more than ordinary interest, being (so far as is yet known) the oldest dated bell in England. There are also mediceval bells at Arkholme, Bolton-le-Sands, Halton (two), and Over Kellet. The Arkholme bell is apparently of fourteenth century date, and that of Bolton­ le-Sands of the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, probably by R. Mellour of Nottingham. The two Halton bells are by Thomas Bett of Leicester, who was casting about 152g-38; and the second bell at Over Kellet, which is of about the same age as that at Bolton­ le-Sands, is by an unknown founder.