The Winchester Bells

One of my favorite parts of the Winchester Cathedral (built in 1079) roof tour was seeing the incredible bell tower room. Bells have been added from 1035 up through the 1990's and now the Cathedral has the only diatonic ring of 14 in the world. The largest bell, the tenor, weighs 1.8 tons! The bells are rung on Sundays at 9 and 2:30. There are 25 people in the bell ringing choir and they have weekly practice. The duties and payments to the ringers are set out in a statute of Charles II, who was King in 1650. Thus the members of the band are paid 2 1⁄2pence per duty ring for a service and 40pence for a "special" ring. (Note: this is not that much money, equivalent to about 5 cents per ring duty and 80 cents for a special ring.) The special ringing takes place at 7:00am on Christmas Day, Ascension Day, St Swithun's Day and the Queen's Birthday (now the official one).
While I was in the bell chamber, the bells went off for marking the half hour. They simply chimed by mechanical means, however, not rung by humans. It was incredible to see all the ropes in the bell ringing room (different from the bell chamber--that is just where the bells are). I love in Oxford on Sundays to hear the bells ringing at Christ Church....they are constant and fill the whole section of the city with beautiful chimes.

Left: the bell chamber
Above: the bell ringing room. Lots of ropes for different bells!