Birmingham, St Chad (8)

RC Cathedral of St Chad
Bells: 8
Weight: 15-3-6 in F

Tower Contact
Graham Kelly
Email the Tower Contact

Ringing
Practice: None
Service: Sunday 11:10-11:30

What is rung?
Stedman Triples, Grandsire Triples, Scientific Triples, Surprise Major

External websites
Peals rung on the bells (Peals database William Hall)
Peals rung on the bells (Felstead)
Dove’s Guide
Church Bells of Warwickshire – Birmingham, St Chad
St Chad’s Cathedral website


History of the bells

The Cathedral is equipped with a beautiful set of bells hung for full-circle ringing in the North-West Tower. The eight bells form a diatonic octave in the key of F Major, with the heaviest bell (the tenor) weighing 15 cwt, 3 qr, and 6 lb. The old ring of eight bells were re-cast and re-hung in 1939-1940 by the Taylor company of Loughborough, Leicestershire, to form the present set which were re-dedicated on 14 February 1940, and first rung on 2 March 1940.

In 1840 a single bell weighing some 17-20 cwt was presented to the Cathedral by ‘The Catholic Friendly Society’ who required that it should ‘be tolled on the decease of every member’. This bell, which was hung in the South-West Tower, was removed after eight years and used to provide metal for a new ring of five bells, cast by Mears of London, which were hung in the North-West Tower. These five bells were subsequently augmented to form the ‘old eight’ by the addition of three light bells, supplied by Blews of Birmingham, in 1877, and these eight bells first rang out across the city on Easter Sunday of that year.

The Cathedral bells are rung regularly by ‘The St Chad’s Cathedral Society of Change Ringers’. The Society, which has been in existence in some form or other at least since 1877, if not earlier. It was re-constituted circa 1967, with the endorsement of the Cathedral Administrator, Canon (later Bishop) Leo McCartie, as an ecumenical group committed to providing and maintaining ringing of the highest standard on a regular basis at Saint Chad’s Cathedral.