The Lost Bells of York

By David Bryant

As is the case with the majority of our historic cities, York has lost a number of churches containing bells over the centuries. Details of the bells at most of the churches lost early on, such as those closed at the Reformation, do not survive but information on the losses of more recent date is available and forms the subject of this article.

The lost churches and their bells will now each be considered in turn, arranged chronologically according to the date of demolition of the church. Only one ring of bells has been lost in the city in recent times for reasons other than the ruination or demolition of the church, and these too are included for the sake of completeness.

St Nicholas

St Nicholas stood in the extra-mural suburb to the east of the walled city, and functioned as both a hospital and a parish church; the latter function ensured that it survived the dissolution. The hospital is said to have been founded in 1142, and the building also had a parochial function from at least 1280. In 1644 York was besieged by Parliamentary forces, and St Nicholas lost its roof when it was hit by cannon balls fired at the city. It was not subsequently repaired, and it is believed that stonework was robbed from it in 1648 and used to repair the nearby Walmgate Bar. The fine Norman porch was transferred to St Margaret, Walmgate (where it can still be seen), and more masonry was removed in 1717 for use in repairs to Dunnington church. The tower and south wall of St Nicholas were still standing in 1730, but subsequently disappeared.

The church had three bells, all of which survive. Details of them are as follows:

Bell	Founder	Date	Diameter	Weight
1	Unknown	C16	32"	5½ cwt
2	John Potter's Successor, York	1408	34"	7 cwt
3	John Potter's Successor, York	1408	37"	9¼ cwt in G#

The two largest are a beautifully cast pair, and the tenor's inscription includes the year of its casting. According to the late Frederick Sharpe, a notable bell historian, it is the fifth earliest dated bell in the country.

Following the ruination of St Nicholas the bells, which were unharmed, were removed and stored in the Chapter House of the Minster until 1653, in which year they were given to St John, Ouse Bridge. There were already three bells at St John's, which became the front three of the ring of six with the St Nicholas bells as the back three. The six bells were tuned and rehung by Taylor's in 1955, following which the three bells from St Nicholas weighed 5-1-11, 6-3-18 and 9-0-4 respectively. All three retain their canons.

St Crux, Pavement

St Crux was the largest, and in some opinions the finest, of York’s medieval Parish Churches. Its unique dedication was derived from 'The Holy Cross'. The church was rebuilt in the Perpendicular style in the 15th century, with the rededication taking place in 1424. The south-western tower was rebuilt in 1697, reputedly to the designs of Christopher Wren although there is no evidence to support this contention. By the later Victorian era, the condition of the church had deteriorated and the tower was becoming unsafe. The urns and cupola were removed from its top, but this did not cure the problem and by 1881 the church had been closed pending a full restoration. Plans were drawn up by E. Ridsdale Tate for the restoration of the body of the church and the rebuilding of the classical tower in a gothic style, favoured by the Victorians and seen as more in keeping with the gothic church.

A restoration appeal was launched in 1883, but was not particularly successful and it was decided to demolish the church, this beginning in the following year. Following protests, demolition was halted and the by now tower-less church remained until 1887 while attempts were made to raise the money to restore it. These were ultimately unsuccessful, and what remained of the church was almost wholly demolished in 1887. The parish was incorporated into that of All Saints, Pavement, and a Parish Room for this church was built on part of the site of and using some of the materials from St Crux. This humble little gothic structure remains today as a reminder of the fine church which once stood here. The height of the former church can still be seen by looking at the last building in The Shambles, which incorporates part of the north wall of St Crux still standing to full height. Other architectural fragments from the church survive elsewhere: the stonework of a window stands in the garden of a house in Tadcaster Road and other pieces, including parts of the arcade piers, were taken to Holly Bank House, York, and were subsequently removed to the gardens of Poppleton Hall, Nether Poppleton, where they remained until this house was demolished in the 1960s and a housing estate built on its site and in its grounds. What happened to the St Crux fragments after this is not known to the author.

St Crux possessed two bells, details of which were as follows:

Bell	Founder	Date	Diameter	Weight
1	Samuel Smith, York	1673	31¾"	5½ cwt in B
sanctus	Peter van den Ghein of Mechlin, Holland	1523	c.14½"	¾ cwt

Both bells are illustrated (after removal from the tower) in Benson's 'York Bellfounders', still complete with their headstocks. The larger bell had canons of traditional layout, which were removed in 1903 when the bell was installed at Bishopthorpe Church. The bell was fitted with a timber headstock with strap gudgeons and stock hoops. It was certainly hung for ringing, as is proven by the presence of two diametrically opposed clapper scars made before it was quarter-turned, which occurred when it was installed at Bishopthorpe. The smaller bell has canons of traditional layout and retains some of its fittings, consisting of an oak headstock, drive-in gudgeons with stock hoops, bolted ironwork, the remains of a chiming lever and a clapper. Unfortunately, no details of the other fittings or of the framework which existed at St Crux seem to have survived. Following the demolition of their church the bells were placed on display in the Great Hall of the Museum, and in 1903 were given, along with the font from St Crux, to St Andrew's Church, Bishopthorpe, which was just being completed by the addition of a tower.

Taylor's were asked to inspect the bells and assess their suitability for inclusion in the bell installation project at Bishopthorpe; it was hoped that the bells could be used as money was short. It was intended to install a ring with a tenor of 14 cwt in F#, and Taylor's confirmed that the larger St Crux bell could form the treble of a ring of four with a tenor matching these specifications. The installation of the ring of four subsequently went ahead. Taylor's removed the canons from the St Crux bell, drilled it and provided it with a new set of ringing fittings including a cast iron headstock. Somewhat surprisingly, the bell was not tuned and remains 'maiden'. After the canon removal and drilling work had been carried out the bell tipped the scales at 5-1-16. Taylor's also cast and fitted out three larger bells, and installed all four in a new low side cast iron six-bell frame. The ring has since been augmented to six by the addition of two trebles.

The smaller St Crux bell was not large enough to be of any use in the ring, but it is interesting to note that it was not scrapped, as usually happened to unwanted bells at this time when conservation was only beginning to be thought of. Presumably it was saved because the rarity value of Flemish bells in England was realised even then. The bell was delivered to Bishopthorpe church and now stands on display above the doorway in the ringing chamber, still complete with its headstock (with remains of chiming lever) and clapper.

Holy Trinity, King's Square

Holy Trinity (also known as Christ Church) stood in the middle of King's Square. The earliest mention of the church dates from 1268, and it was rebuilt in the 14th / 15th centuries. The ground plan of the church was highly unconventional as a result of the confines of the cramped site, and the plan was preserved when all but the east wall of the church was rebuilt in 1861. Illustrations show that the rebuilt church was very much in the style of its predecessor.

In 1886 the parish of Holy Trinity was united with that of nearby St Sampson (now itself redundant) and Holy Trinity fell into disuse. It was the church of the Butchers' Guild, standing as it did at the top of The Shambles, and in 1896 was apparently being used to house a small flock of sheep! The fittings were gradually removed, with the altar table going to St Mary, Bishophill Junior and the organ and pulpit to Poppleton. The church itself was demolished in 1937, a sad loss.

Today King's Square is an open space, and there is scant indication of the little church which stood on the site for over nine hundred years. Few visitors will notice the nineteen rather eroded gravestones incorporated into the paving on the south side of the square, or the inscribed slab with a depiction of the church which commemorates what we have lost.

The clock from Holy Trinity was transferred to St Maurice, Monkgate (now itself demolished) and the ring of six bells were removed into storage in the Minster stoneyard. Details of them were as follows:

Bell	Founder	Date	Diameter	Weight
1	Samuel Smith, York	1693	25 1/8"	2-3-24
2	Samuel Smith, York	1681	26½"	3-1-19
3	William Cuerdon, York	1659	31 7/8"	5-2-24
4	William Chamberlain, London	c.1440	34¼"	7-1-12
5	William Chamberlain, London	c.1440	38"	10-1-7
6	William Chamberlain, London	c.1440	41 3/8"	12-2-23 in G

It seems strange that the three largest were cast by a London founder as there was an active bellfoundry in York during the period when they were cast. It is also interesting to note that the 3rd of the six was cast from the metal of the two smaller of the ring of three bells which had been removed from St Laurence following damage to its tower in the siege of York in 1644, when all three of its bells became cracked or broken. In 1659, Holy Trinity's new bell was hung and the other bells rehung by Thomas Ragge of Gainsborough (Ex. Inf. George Dawson).

The bells at Holy Trinity were hung for ringing. All six retained their canons, but to date it has not been possible to discover any information regarding their framework and fittings. Whether or not they were in a ringable condition at the time of the demolition of the church is unclear; some folk memories suggest that they were, but others suggest that they were not. However, there are no stories of anyone even talking of any ringing at the church which rather suggests that they were unringable.

Following the demolition of Holy Trinity various requests were received for single bells but the Chancellor of the Diocese decided that the ring should be kept intact. Apparently Taylor's records contain a letter regarding a proposed scheme to install them at St Sampson, just around the corner from Holy Trinity, but nothing came of this and they were eventually given to the tower-less church of St Barnabas, Linthorpe, Middlesbrough. This church launched an appeal to build a tower and hang the bells, and an order was placed with Taylor's to tune them, add two trebles and provide all new framework and fittings. How far the work progressed is unclear, but the tuning was certainly carried out and at least some of the headstocks were cast and fitted. Two new trebles were also cast, as requested. Details of them were as follows:

Bell	Founder	Date	Diameter	Weight
1	Taylor, Loughborough	1940	22"	2-1-8
2	Taylor, Loughborough	1940	23"	2-2-18

After tuning, the six old bells weighed as follows: treble, 2-3-17; 2nd, 3-1-15; 3rd, 5-2-23; 4th, 7-0-25; 5th, 10-0-6; tenor, 12-1-3.

The fund raising scheme ground to a halt as a result of the war, and when Taylor's wrote to the church in 1972 the existence of the bells had been forgotten. Ownership of the six was therefore transferred back to the Diocese of York, and any framework and fittings which had been made were presumably used elsewhere. Taylor's had never been paid for the trebles of eight, and the treble was subsequently sold to the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester. There is no record of what happened to the 2nd, but it was probably broken up.

Shortly afterwards it was proposed to scrap the front three of the original six, putting the metal towards the casting of five bells to complete a ring of six at Elloughton, near Hull, where a single bell (Taylor's 1965), designed as the tenor of a future ring, had been installed when the church was restored following a serious fire in 1964. This proposal marked the beginning of David Potter's involvement with the bells. David wrote to the Archbishop objecting to the three bells being scrapped, but unfortunately the needless destruction of them went ahead regardless, and for less than 12 cwt of bell metal. The five new bells for Elloughton were cast by Taylor's in 1973, and it is some consolation that the inscriptions of the three King's Square bells were reproduced, albeit not in facsimile, on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of the new ring. This was carried out as a condition of the faculty which authorised the metal from the bells to be used at Elloughton.

Homes were sought for the three larger bells, and it was proposed to use the smallest at the new church of St John, Brandsholme, Sutton, Hull. In the event the largest bell from St Maurice, York (see later) was used instead, but by the time this was decided Taylor's had already been instructed to remove the canons from the King's Square bell, and had done so. In 1974, all three remaining King's Square bells were given to the Roman Catholic Carmelite order, which had then recently purchased Hazlewood Castle near Tadcaster. The canons were removed from the two largest, and the three bells were provided with internal electric solenoid clappers and hung from a triangular oak gibbet beside the chapel in the grounds of Hazlewood Castle. The bells were dedicated on 3rd September 1977 and were hung as a memorial to the recently canonised St Margaret Clitherow, the wife of a York butcher who had lived in the Shambles, within the parish of Holy Trinity. Margaret Clitherow had been crushed to death for her Catholic beliefs at the time of the Reformation, and it was therefore considered appropriate that the bells which she would have heard whilst alive should be hung in her memory.

Hazlewood Castle was sold by the Carmelite order in October 1996, and David Potter determined to secure the bells for use in York. After a long legal wrangle, he was successful and the three bells are now in his custody, being the property of the Trustees of The York Bell Fund. It is intended to use them as part of a scheme in York at some point in the future, although exactly what this scheme will be has yet to be decided. There has been some discussion over installing them as the back three of a ring of five or six  at St Saviour, York, but this idea is dormant at the time of writing. St Saviour's would be a particularly appropriate tower in which to house the bells as it is only just around the corner from their original home.

St Mary, Bishophill Senior

St Mary, Bishophill Senior, was of Saxon foundation and incorporated work from virtually every succeeding century. In its final form the church consisted of  nave, north aisle and tower; this latter being constructed over the westernmost bay of the north aisle. The tower of the church was destroyed by lightning in 1378, but had presumably been rebuilt by 1461 when new bells were given. A plan of 1610 shows a detached campanile standing in the churchyard, but in 1659 the north-western tower, of brick, was built and the campanile disappeared. It seems likely that the bells from the campanile were moved to the new tower; James Harrison of Barton-on-Humber hung the bells at 'St Mary Bishophill' in 1749, and as he supplied a six bell frame we can be fairly sure that the church referred to is that of Bishophill Senior; St Mary, Bishophill Junior, has never had as many as six bells.

A new ring of six bells was provided for Bishophill Senior in 1770 by Pack and Chapman of Whitechapel, and were hung by Samuel and Robert Turner who were Whitechapel's bellhanging contractors (Ex. Inf. George Dawson). Details of the bells were as follows:

Bell	Founder	Date	Diameter	Weight
1	Pack & Chapman, Whitechapel	1770	27"	5-0-27
2	Pack & Chapman, Whitechapel	1770	30"	5-2-21
3	Pack & Chapman, Whitechapel	1770	32"	6-1-14
4	Pack & Chapman, Whitechapel	1770	34"	7-1-2
5	Pack & Chapman, Whitechapel	1770	37"	8-3-21
6	Pack & Chapman, Whitechapel	1770	41"	11-3-17 in F#

The bells may have been rehung by Whitechapel in the nineteenth century, as a weight chart of the type produced by the foundry during this period and giving details of the bells survives in the archives of the York Minster Society. However, such weight charts were often sent out by the foundry as a form of advertising so they may not have actually worked on the bells at this time. The bells were certainly rehung by J. F. Mallaby of Barnby Don in 1907, probably in the old frame, with the work being completed on 19th September of that year. This is the last known work of that firm (Ex. Inf. George Dawson).

The church was annexed to St Mary, Bishophill Junior, in 1876 and its parish was divided between this church and St Clement, Scarcroft Road. Services at Bishophill Senior were discontinued in 1924, and the condition of the building deteriorated in the succeeding decades. During much of this time the bells continued to be used for practice by the Minster ringers, but ringing was discontinued in the mid 1940s. One reason given for this is that the tower was declared unsafe, but the writings of Harold Walker, a York ringer at the time, suggest that the reason was actually that vandals had broken into the tower and cut the ropes and broken the light. The ringing chamber was on the first floor, and it was necessary to walk along the west gallery to reach it. In 1951-4 the church was recorded by the RCHM, by which time it had become derelict, and following this most of its fittings were removed to other churches, with the bells being installed at St Stephen, Acomb, York, in 1954. The work of installing the bells in their new home was carried out by Taylor's of Loughborough who also tuned them, removed the canons and provided all new fittings and framework. After tuning the weights of the bells were as follows: treble, 4-3-25; 2nd, 5-1-16; 3rd, 5-3-2; 4th, 6-3-25; 5th, 8-1-10 and tenor, 10-3-26. The 5th became cracked in an accident with an Ellacombe hammer in May 1978, and Taylor's recast it in the following year; the present bell weighs 8-1-23.

Some of the monuments from Bishophill Senior were removed to St Clement, as were a unit of wall shelves, a Saxon patriarchal grave cover, a table of benefactors and a table of the Lord Mayors in office during the latter half of the nineteenth century; St Mary's had been the civic church during this period.

The condition of St Mary, Bishophill Senior, continued to deteriorate, and in 1963 it was demolished as a public safety hazard. Archdeacon Forder of York suggested that some architectural features from the church could be incorporated into the new church of The Holy Redeemer, to be built in Boroughbridge Road, Acomb. This ideal was subsequently realised and various features were reused, including the arcade from between the nave and north aisle at Bishophill Senior, a 12th century doorway and the tracery of the 1866 east window which was reused in the west window of the new church. The architect of The Holy Redeemer, George Pace, selected a large block of worked stone from Bishophill Senior which appeared to be part of the original Saxon building and this was used as the foundation stone of the new church. On top of it was placed another relict from Bishophill Senior, this being part of a fourteenth century grave cover incised with a foliated cross which indicated that it had once marked the grave of an ecclesiastic. The Holy Redeemer was consecrated on 12th December 1964; it is a highly original building and many consider it to be one of the finest later twentieth century churches in the country.

The railed graveyard in which St Mary, Bishophill Senior, formerly stood still survives as an open space on the corner of Bishophill Senior and the steep Carr's Lane. The outline of the former church can be seen in the grass if conditions are favourable.

St Maurice, Monkgate

The medieval church of St Maurice dated from the late 12th century and in its final form consisted of nave, chancel with south aisle, south porch, vestry and a small wooden bell turret over the western end of the nave in which the two smaller bells listed below would have hung. The church was badly damaged in the siege of York in 1644, but was subsequently repaired and survived until 1875 when a rising population rendered it too small and it was demolished and a new larger church was built on the site (architects Gould and Fisher). The two bells from the old church, together with their fittings and possibly also their frame, were transferred to the tower of the new church. In 1883 they were joined by two new larger bells by Warner's, which were installed in a new frame separate from that containing the two old bells. Details of the four bells were as follows:

Bell	Founder	Date	Diameter	Weight	Note
1	Samuel Smith I, York	1665	16¾"	0-3-11 in B	Bb+50
2	Edward Seller I, York	1710	19½"	1-1-21 in Ab	Ab+39
3	Warner, London	1883	33 1/8""	7-0-0 in Bb	Bb-4
4	Warner, London	1883	36"	8-2-11 in A	A+/-0

The two smaller bells each had six canons of traditional layout; the two larger had Doncaster Heads. The bells hung in two separate frames, with one containing the two smaller bells and one the two larger; neither frame had any empty pits. All four bells were hung for ringing: the fittings of the two smaller, as already noted, were transferred with the bells from the previous church and included wheels, timber headstocks with drive-in gudgeons and originally stock hoops, although both of the latter from the treble and one from the 2nd were missing. There were no sliders present, and the two bells were fitted with 17th or 18th-century stirrup-topped clappers. All fittings were considerably dilapidated. It is not known when the frame containing these two bells dated from; it is possible that it was transferred from the previous church, although equally it could have been constructed when the Victorian church was built in 1875.

The two larger bells, as already mentioned, hung in a separate frame from the two smaller and this frame will certainly have dated from 1883. It may have been by Warner's, or alternatively it may have been the work of a local bellhanger such as Thomas Mallaby of Masham. A poignant plaque attached to the frame recorded details of the donation of the two bells, which were given in memory of one of the church's choir boys who had drowned in the Foss. The two bells were hung for ringing with fittings contemporary with them including wheels, timber headstocks, plate gudgeons and clappers on independent staples. As with the smaller bells, there were no sliders present. In addition, the tenor had a clock hammer.

There was also a clock in the tower, which struck the hours on the tenor. This clock was built by Charles Brown of Selby in 1840 for Holy Trinity, King's Square, and was reconditioned and installed in St Maurice by Richard Newey of York in 1938 following the demolition of Holy Trinity in the previous year.

The Victorian St Maurice's Church, in its turn, became superfluous to present day needs and was demolished in 1967; the churchyard remains an open space on the corner of Lord Mayor's Walk and Monkgate. Many of the fittings from the church, which were mostly Victorian, were taken to the new church of James the Deacon, Acomb. This church also incorporates a Norman doorway from old St Maurice (which had remained in the churchyard of 'new' St Maurice), and has one of the bells from St Maurice (see below).

Following the demolition of St Maurice the four bells languished in storage in the courtyard of St William's College for several years, and it was intended that the two smaller would be relocated, while the two larger would be broken up and their metal used towards casting bells for St Martin-le-Grand. However, in the event all four of the St Maurice's bells remained intact and homes were eventually found for all of them, with the two smallest going to St Hilda, Grangetown, Middlesbrough, the 3rd to James the Deacon, Acomb, York, and the tenor to St John, Brandsholme, Sutton, Hull.

St Margaret, Walmgate

St Margaret, unlike the other churches looked at in this article, has not been demolished or allowed to fall down. However, its bells have been lost and hence it is included in this article.

The church dates from at least Norman times and is first mentioned in a document of 1177-81. However, the only remnant of the Norman church is a small fragment of the north wall. There is evidence that the church had a west tower before the 14th century, and in the 14th century the church was enlarged, with further additions being made in the late 15th century when a vestry was added. Disaster struck circa 1675, when the tower collapsed. The parish was not a wealthy one, and it was not until 1684 that a new tower, of stone and brick, was constructed. It was probably also at this time that the fine Norman south porch (now much restored) was transferred from the ruined church of St Nicholas' Hospital. A major restoration of St Margaret's church took place in 1850-1, when much of the church was rebuilt.

St Margaret was declared redundant in 1974, when most of its fittings were removed. The church was used as a store by the Theatre Royal for a time, but in 1998 was converted into the National Centre for Early Music. The conversion went ahead with the aid of lottery money, and has been carried out in a tasteful and sympathetic manner. A new building containing a reception area, offices, facilities and a conference room has been constructed adjoining the north side of the church, and the church itself has become the main auditorium of the centre. As such it remains undivided and largely unfurnished, and is a spacious area filled with light.

Until 1978 the western tower contained a ring of three bells, details of which were as follows:

Bell	Founder	Date	Diameter	Weight
1	Samuel Smith I, York	1700	30"	5¼ cwt
2	Samuel Smith I, York	1700	33"	6½ cwt
3	Robert Dalton, York	1788	36 3/8"	9 cwt in G#

George Benson, writing in 1885, also records a sanctus bell, which he describes as 13" in diameter, small, plain and with a flat top. It had disappeared by 1977.

The bells were maiden castings, had not been turned on their headstocks and were not of particularly good tone. Also, the tenor was noticeably sharp relative to the treble and 2nd. The clapper wear on the bells was only slight, suggesting that they had received relatively little use. All three had six canons of traditional layout, with those to the tenor being plain and those to the treble and 2nd scalloped.

As for the fittings, these consisted of elm headstocks with strap gudgeons and plain bearings sunk into the frame heads. Traditional wheels, stays and sliders were fitted. The bells retained their original clappers, and the remainder of the fittings mostly dated from the eighteenth century.

At some point subsequent to the installation of the bells, an unusual chiming machine had been set up in the chamber below them. This consisted of a crank with three journals attached, and a rope tied to the clapper of each bell was formerly affixed to each of the three journals by a leather strap. A wheel of approximately 4' diameter was attached to one end of the crank, and by turning this wheel the 'ringer' could cause each of the bells to be clocked in turn. It is perhaps surprising that none of the bells had become cracked by the use of this machine. When the bells were removed in 1978, this machine was given to the Castle Museum.

The ringing bells hung in a fine three-bell frame which remains in situ and is probably coeval with the present tower. It occupies the eastern three-quarters of the bell chamber and all three bells were arranged in a line swinging east-west, with the tenor on the north side of the tower.  The frame has slightly curved braces from cills to heads and diagonal jack braces from the main braces to the heads. A small pit for the sanctus bell is aligned north-south across the western end of the tenor pit.

In the late 1970s it was proposed to use the metal of the tenor bell to cast two trebles for All Saints, Huntington, but in the event the Huntington bells were cast from other metal and it was decided to use all three St Margaret's bells towards casting four trebles for St Martin-le-Grand, to go with the back four of the Illingworth chime which had then recently been acquired. To this end, the three bells were removed by local ringers at Easter 1978. It was recommended that the inscriptions of the bells should be copied in facsimile onto three of the new bells for St Martin's, but in the event the inscriptions proved too indistinct to have reproduced legibly and so were copied in Taylor's lettering. It was also suggested that perhaps the crown and inscription band of the tenor could be preserved in the museum along with the chiming machine, but in the event this didn't happen.

Apart from the frame, all that remains of the bell installation are the headstock and chiming lever of the sanctus bell, the slider runner boards, a pulley box in the tenor pit, five of the bearing brasses and a pile of pieces of broken wheel and other unidentifiable lumps of timber. The chamber below now contains a large air conditioning unit, and the flue from this rises up into the western side of the bell chamber, between the frame and the wall, and vents through the western louvres.

Endnote

Although York has lost four churches containing bells during the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries, along with one bell installation from a church which still survives, the city's bells have in reality fared well compared to those of other medieval English cities such as Norwich and London, which have lost substantially more of their bells during this period. In recent decades there has been a revival of ringing in York and a number of rings of bells have been installed, restored or augmented; a welcome contrast to the situation in so many other cities. The present healthy state of bells and ringing in York is entirely due to the commitment and enthusiasm of David Potter, who I would like to thank for pointing me in the direction of much information on the bells of York and for commenting on a draft of this article. I would also like to thank George Dawson for supplying many useful pieces of information and for similarly commenting on a draft. Thanks also to the late Ranald Clouston, who supplied me with details of the lost bell installation at St Maurice.

Revised 21st October 2005