The Bells
There have been bells here from Saxon times, and King Canute is recorded as having given two in 1035. The Cathedral archives list, year after year, important occasions when the bells were rung; ringing for Nelson's victory at Trafalgar in 1805 and again in 1815 after Waterloo.
There were seven bells by the mid-seventeenth century, and in 1734 a new ring of eight bells in C and repairs to the frame were ordered from Richard Phelps of Whitechapel. As far as is known, it is from that installation that full circle ringing began in the Cathedral. Most of the bells were recast over the next two hundred years in search of improvements. Two bells were added in 1892 and two more in 1921.
In 1936/7, the whole ring of 12 was recast and rehung by Taylors of Loughborough. The Tenor was recast when Edward VIII had succeeded George V as King, but had not yet been crowned. An invocation to bless the coronation and Edward's subsequent reign was cast into the surface of the bell, and because of the abdication, the words Edwardi Octavi were scored through and George Sexti incised above.
In 1956 a redundant bell of 1621 from a local church was tuned to B flat and added. In 1991/2, the tower was extensively repaired and the various bell-frames were renewed or replaced. Two further trebles and a F sharp (cast at Whitechapel by today's successors to Phelps, founder of our 1734 eight) were added through the generosity of the Friends of Winchester Cathedral, and other donors from the Ringing Exercise. The Cathedral now has the only diatonic ring of 14 in the world, and a wide range of options for ringing lesser numbers in the keys of C, F and G.
