Truro Cathedral

12 Bell Ringing

Anyone interested in 12 bell ringing is welcome to come and ring with us at our practice on Tuesday evenings at 7.30 and come to ring for Evensong  from 15.30 till 16.00 on Sundays.

TRURO CATHEDRAL BELLS

Truro Cathedral as we see it today was build over a period of thirty years, with work commencing in 1880 with the demolition of the majority of the parish church of St Mary, and concluding in 1910 with the completion of the two west towers. It seems fairly clear that the Cathedral architect, John Pearson, gave no thought to providing accommodation for a ring of bells, and it is also probable that the early members of the Cathedral Chapter and of the Cathedral Building Committee did not include the provision of bells in their plans. The old parish church had two bells hung in a spire at the east end of that church. In 1904 these were rehung with four clock bells in a new spire built at the west end of St Mary’s Aisle, and it seems that the provision of this clock, together with a sanctus bell for chiming before services, was as far as the Chapter intended to go.

Fortunately for us as ringers, an appeal was subsequently launched for ringing bells to be given to the Cathedral. Our glorious ring of ten bells, all given by local families and groups associated with the Cathedral, was dedicated on 21 June 1910. To mark their centenary funds were raised for initially two and subsequently four bells to give us our present ring of twelve with two semi-tone bells, and the augmented ring was dedicated in November 2011. Our semi-tone bells give us a large number of different rings of six, eight and ten for us to use, as well as our twelve. The bells are rung twice each Sunday and on our Tuesday practice evening, and visiting ringers are always welcome to join us.

Robert Perry

Hear the bells – ringing Grandsire cinques