Campanalogia

As a devotee of classic crime fiction, I first learned about bellringing from Dorothy L. Sayers’ The Nine Tailors. That is where I first heard of Grandsire Triples and Treble Bob Majors. 

Recently, when reading an article in an eighteenth century Kent newspaper, I noticed an article on bellringing on the same page. I decided to find out more. 

Church bells, and the ringing of them, have been part of English life for many centuries. In 1554-55 Smarden churchwardens paid to have the bell taken down, taken to Canterbury, recast, brought home and rehung with new ropes. They also paid 4d to the ringers to ‘say the bell’. Total cost to the parish was £2 7s 0d, out of a total expenditure that year of £9 13s 9½d.

St Michael's Church, Smarden

In 1693 the churchwardens of Milton Regis paid for beer for the ringers on 5th November. They paid for the ringers on the day of Thanksgiving for the KIng’s (William III) return from overseas (the country was at war at the time). The ringers had beer on several other occasions also. 

Holy Trinity Church, Milton Regis

Bellringing has been a social and competitive pastime since at least the second half of the seventeenth century. Campanalogia or the Art of Ringing was published in 1677. The book was dedicated to the Society of College Youths, a bellringing society based in the City of London which dates from 1637

Campanalogia was advertised in Kent newspapers in the first half of the eighteenth century. The Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal and the Kentish Gazette also reported the achievements of different bellringing teams. In March 1729 the Company of Ringers belonging to Dover rang a peal of 5040 ‘Gransir’ Triples in three hours and two minutes at St Mary’s church, thought to be the first time it had been done in Kent. 

In March 1736 the Wye ringers rang 5040 ‘Grandsir’ Triples in three and a half hours, thought to be the first time it had been done in Kent without the assistance of London ringers. 

Church of St Gregory and St Martin, Wye

Ringers might travel to different churches, especially if there was a special purpose for the ringing. In July 1790, a new peal of eight bells was to be opened at Ash next Sandwich by the Canterbury ringers. The peal was to be rung from ten o'clock inn the forenoon, There was to be an 'ordinary' or fixed price meal at the Ship Inn at two o'clock. 

St Nicholas Church and Ship Inn, Ash next Sandwich

There was also sometimes a competitive element, with prizes for the set of ringers that could complete a particular ringing challenge:

To be Rung for on Monday 21st March next [1743], at

Lenham in Kent, Six Pair of Doe-skin Gloves. of the

best Sort and newest Fashion, made by the Lenham Glover,

four Shillings a Pair. Any Sett of Ringers that now live and

have lived in any one Parish in the said County a full Month

before the Day of Ringing, (Lenham Ringers only excepted)

that compleats the bell Peal of 750 Changes in three Trials,

shall be intitled to the Gloves. Given by me

OLIVER WRAY

At the Dog and Bear at Lenham

Where will be a very good Twelve-penny Ordinary on the

Day of Ringing.

St Mary's Church, Lenham

During the course of the eighteenth century, bellringing was reported at, or by teams from, Biddenden, Dover, Goudhurst, Harrietsham, Leeds, Maidstone, Romney and Wye. It seems the ringers themselves submitted details of their achievements to the newspapers; there may have been many occasions when no report was sent. In January 1781 the Kentish Gazette announced ‘it is expected in future that the Gentleman Ringers, who wish to proclaim their fame through the County, do pay for the same’. Ringers may have been less likely to send reports if required to pay for publication. 

The Dog and Bear, Lenham

Probably then, as now, a Shepherd Neame pub

Ringing was not always free from disputes. An anonymous announcement in the Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal on 20 February 1740 claimed that a peal of 5040 rung earlier in the month by an unnamed team of ringers was not rung as claimed for several reasons, including ‘it was unworthy of a Name among Ringers from beginning to ending, by reason of its Badness’.

St John the Baptist Church, Harrietsham

On 23 February Thomas Jarman responded on behalf of the ringers in question, who were from Wye and had rung at Canterbury. The previous advertisement was ‘a scandalous Libel… done through Envy and Malice, because they themselves could not do it, though they had tried these ten years past Times out of Number’. The ‘Ignorant Author’ and the rest of his Crew were challenged to ring with the Wye ringers at Maidstone on any day they pleased to appoint. 

All Saints Church, Maidstone

Henry Baker of Boughton under the Blean replied on 27 February, saying that he alone had caused the first notice to be published, ‘to fulfil my Promise made to all your Faces at the Rose in Canterbury’ and referring to ‘the most shameful and false Performances’ of the Wye ringers. Henry Baker issued his own challenge, to ring with them at Maidstone, Gravesend or London. Thomas Jarman appears not to have responded in the newspaper, although there may have been further confrontations at the Rose in Canterbury. 

In the second half of the eighteenth century, the newspaper announcements began to include the names of the ringers. The Maidstone youths who rang at Goudhurst in March 1776 were James Brissee, William Sanders, Thomas Cutbush, James Swinock, Robert Tassell, George Highland, Thomas Swinock and Dan Whestone. 

St Mary's Church, Goudhurst

Further research may reveal more about these men and whether they were, as the Kentish Gazette said, ‘Gentleman Ringers’. Family historians may find an ancestor among the ringers. 

As a fiction writer, I am tempted to write the face to face altercation between Henry Baker and Thomas Jarman, and their respective crews, at the Rose in Canterbury. 

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