The Bells

The Rev. H D Gordon records that the four original bells were re-cast in 1782 and two more were cast to make a ring of six. All are marked CHAPMAN & MEARS OF LONDON FECERUNT 1782.

Harting Bells fecerunt 1782

The bells range from a few hundredweight to the tenor bell which, with its headstock, weighs about three quarters of a ton.

Bell Ringing

Most of us have watched our bell-ringers in action, not all of us are aware of the complex system existing up in the belfry which gives us the joyful sound.

Originally, church bells were rung by a simple pull which started them swinging. There was no method of varying the order in which they sounded.

During the 1500s a mechanism was developed in England whereby bells could be stopped and started at will: this enabled them to be rung in different sequences, hence ‘change-ringing’.

Harting Bells 2012

In this position the bell is ‘down’

- the bell is attached to the headstock which is fixed to the wheel

- the headstock runs on bearings carried by the frame

- the stay is also fixed to the headstock

Harting's band of ringers rang in the Millennium and often herald the start of the New Year and the Festivities.