Bellringing at St. John's Parish Church, Halifax

History

Introduction

This article is submitted her to provide a little bit of information as to how our superb ring developed over the last 400 years. There are as yet many gaps to be filled in the tables giving out the details, but hopefully they will be filled in the not too distant future. If you have any further information, please let us know. Happy reading.

The Halifax Opening in 1787

This is an account of the bells taken from an old Ringing World.

In 1787 a visit was paid to Yorkshire.... The band (of College Youths) ... went first to Halifax, where a new ring of eight was opened on October 9th, and on the next day they rang 5,088 Oxford Treble Bob Major. They claimed this as the first peal ever rung in that county, but the claim is not a sound one. Two years previously 5,120 in the same method had been rung at Sheffield.
Early in 1787, the inhabitants resolved that the eight bells at the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist, Halifax, should be replaced. It was decided that the money for the scheme should be secured by voluntary subscription and not by a rate levied on the parish, ' to avoid all litigation, as to any townships, districts or places, being, or not being, liable to contribute thereto.' The old eight were a. miscellaneous lot. The treble had been cast (or recast) in 1660; the second bell bore the date 1722: the third and fourth bells were dated 1720; on the sixth was inscribed' Geronomen Sanct. Johannis D 1599 F': on the seventh� Thomas Fourness of Halifax the first founder of this bell 1472 recast 1639'; the tenor, called Stancliff; was dated 1691; and had been cast by Samuel Smith at York.

QUAINT INSCRIPTIONS
A moderate estimate of tbe cost of the work involved was £350, and promises of subscriptions, including one of 20 guineas from the Halifax ringers, were quickly received. In due course the new bells were cast at the Whitechapel foundry; transported northwards and installed. The names of the founders appeared on the seventh bell; the other bells each carried two lines of doggerel; for example, the third:
Let Parker's liberal deeds be known to future ages yet unborn.' (A Mr. Parker gave 20 guineas.)
It was arranged that the bells should be opened in October 1787. The opening, in fact, took place early that month, and occupied two days, but which two it is difficult to discover. Mr. Trollope said the opening day was the 9th, Parson and White's Annals, History find Guide of Leeds and York, etc., and John Mayhew's 'Annals of Yorkshire,' both gave the 10th as the opening day.
On the first day, whichever it was, early in the morning, the Halifax ringers raised the bells in peal, rang a touch of Bob major, followed by a lower in peal, taking 40 minutes.

CROWN BOB TRIPLES
Bradford ringers followed them with a peal of 5,040 Crown Bob Triples in three hours and ten minutes. Crown Bob on six bells (as rung, for example, at Rotherham in 1752 and Addingham-in-Craven in 1759) was a combination of Oxford Treble Bob, College Treble Bob and College Pleasure. Similarly, Crown Bob Triples was a combination of College Triples, Oxford Triples and London Triples, and a peal described as 'Royal Union or Crown Bob Triples' and as 'perhaps the first peal of the kind ever rung in this country,' had been rung at Leeds on September 22nd, 1769.
The Wakefield Society next rang a peal of Triples - method unidentified - in three hours and twenty-nine minutes.
The Leeds Society rang the third and last peal that day - 5,040 Bob Triples in three hours and sixteen minutes. The next morning, the College Youths were first up the tower and rang the peal referred to in the opening quotation, in three hours and thirty-five minutes. The ringers were: Robert Donkin, treble; Thomas Blakemore, second (conductor); John Inville, third; Joseph Monk, fourth; William Lyford, fifth; George Webb, sixth; Joseph Holdsworth, seventh; and Samuel Muggeridge, jun., tenor. It was unpardonable arrogance to claim the peal as the first in Yorkshire, but a peal in the method would be new to some, and perhaps all, of the ringers assembled at Halifax that day.
Ringers of the Ashton-under-Lyne Society were next, and a peal of Triples, method unknown, was rung in three hours and three minutes, after which the Sowerby ringers started for a peal of Triples, but failing light forced them to call off their attempt after about 4,500 changes.

LATER PEALS
The College Youths' peal inspired the Leeds and Bradford Societies each to ring a peal of Oxford Treble Bob Major, as two paragraphs in The Leeds Mercury of Tuesday, June 10th, 1788, show:
On Wednesday last, being the anniversary of His Majesty's birthday, was rung at our Parish Church, by the Society of Ringers there, an Abstract of Union Treble Bob, consisting of 5,088 changes, in three hours and twenty minutes, being the first time it was ever rung in this part of the kingdom, except by a select set of ringers from London, who rang the same peal at the opening of Halifax's new bells.
On Wednesday, the same peal was rung at Bradford on the same occasion, by the ringers of that place in three courses complete, and was performed in three hours and six minutes (though the tenor weighs 20 cwt.) in a most masterly manner, to the satisfaction of all lovers of that music, who had the pleasure of hearing them.
The words in this part of the kingdom in the report of the Leeds peal are intriguing: for if synonymous with Yorkshire, they would, of course, mean that the Sheffield peal of Oxford Treble Bob in 1785 was unknown to ringers in the woolen towns of the county - in which case, I suppose, the College Youths might have been justified in calling their peal at Halifax the first of Treble Bob Major in Yorkshire.

Text taken from an article by David Cubitt, featured in the Ringing World on July 25th 1958.

Previous Rings

The Original Ring of 5

The Augmentation to 6

At this time, the old treble of the five (now the 2nd) was recast.

The 1722 Ring of 8

The new 1787 ring of 8

The Augmentation to 10 in 1814

The Augmentation to 13 in 1857

The two Thomas Mears (1814) trebles cracked and were recast at this time, and are numbered 3 and 4 respectively.