St Mary and St Gabriel

Sharing the love of God

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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. 



South Harting 

Petersfield 

Hampshire 

GU31 5QB 

07963 909889 Church Warden

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