The frames are made separately, and the bells hung on them in the tower with their headstocks already attached[1]; until recently all these fittings were made of wood, and iron or brass were only used for the smaller parts, but it is now the custom of some founders to employ iron frames, and even iron stocks, which may be an improvement in lightness and stability, or for ringing purposes, but are hardly so in appearance.
LATE NORMAN BELL-TURRET (ABOUT 1180) AT WYRE CHURCH, WORCESTERSHIRE.
There are openings for two bells, but only one is now used. (See page 8.)]
In early mediaeval times it is probable that bell-founding was largely the work of the monastic orders. It was regarded rather as a fine art than a trade, and ecclesiastics seem to have vied in producing the most ingenious and recondite Latin rhyming verses to adorn their bells. S. Dunstan, whose skill as a smith is familiar to all, is known to have been instrumental in hanging, if not in casting bells; and at Canterbury he gave careful directions for their correct use. S. Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester 963-984, cast bells for Abingdon Abbey. In the museum at York there is a mortar of bell-metal cast by Friar William de Towthorpe, with the date 1308 (Plate 11); but this belongs to later times, when a class of professional founders had sprung up, and is therefore exceptional. We read, however, of Sir William Corvehill, a monk of Wenlock Priory, who died shortly after its dissolution, in 1546, that he “could make organs, clocks, and chimes,” and was “a good bell-founder and maker of the frames for bells.” It has not been possible to trace his work in any existing bells.
INNER MOULDS OR CORES FOR CASTING A RING OF EIGHT BELLS.
From time to time, however, we hear of professional bell-founders, as they may be termed, and even in the thirteenth century foundries appear to have been started in London, Bristol, Gloucester, and York. The London “belleyeteres,” as they are called, early attained a position of importance. Many of them are mentioned in contemporary records of the fourteenth century; of others we have the existing wills, which enable us to trace the succession from one generation to another; and again the names of several occur on bells of this period, contrary to the usual mediaeval practice. In the days when work for the Church was a labour of love, less importance was attached to self-advertisement; though the student of the past may regret this in some measure if it deprives him of information he wishes to acquire.