This film has no credits and came with no additional information, and so we don’t know by whom the film was made.  The references to the bell makers, John Taylor and Co., strongly suggests that it was they who commissioned the film, or possibly were themselves responsible for the camera work and editing.  In any case the film probably functioned as a promotional film that may well have been shown in some cinemas as similar information films of this kind would often accompany the main film....

This film has no credits and came with no additional information, and so we don’t know by whom the film was made.  The references to the bell makers, John Taylor and Co., strongly suggests that it was they who commissioned the film, or possibly were themselves responsible for the camera work and editing.  In any case the film probably functioned as a promotional film that may well have been shown in some cinemas as similar information films of this kind would often accompany the main film.

Great Peter, the Cathedral’s Bourdon Bell (the heaviest bell), is slightly heavier than the previous one made in 1845, and is still in full swing.  It chimes the hour, and for 10 minutes at midday, every day.  It joins six other clock bells on the north-west tower which ring the changes, and 14 bells on the south-west tower.  The two bigger bells at the time were, and still are, Big Ben and the one at St. Paul's Cathedral.  However, Great Peter is the largest bell to be swung manually.  All of these bells were cast at Taylor's Bellfoundry, which has cast more large bells than any other bell foundry in history.

The story behind the arrival of Great Peter is presented by the former Ringing Master of York Minster Society of Change-Ringers, David Potter (who donated the film), in his book The Bells and Bellringers of York Minster (which gives a full account of the restoration and contains some wonderful pictures of it).  A report into the poor condition of the bells of York Minster was written by William Greenleaf in 1908, a bell hanger from Hereford.  The Vicar of Beverley Minster, Canon H E Nolloth, who had overseen a successful major bell restoration at Beverley Minster, advised against employing Greenleaf for the job and recommended Taylor’s Bell Foundry instead.   However, this advice was not taken, and John Warner & Sons of Spitalfields were engaged to do the restoration work in 1913/14.  Unfortunately they did a bad job, a costly mistake which was not rectified until Canon Nolloth was brought on board to oversee another restoration, this time employing Taylor’s, the “Rolls Royce” of bell founders.  Their report, in October 1924, recommended that all the bells be recast and re-hung.

The first attempt to cast a new Great Peter ended in an accident with the metal leaking from the mould.  An idea to recast the old Great Peter bell was abandoned because the bell was still in York, and the new bell was wanted to be in place in time for the 1,3000th anniversary celebrations to take place in June 1927, culminating on St Peter’s Day on June 29th (a date that was not met).  On its way to York, the bell stopped off at various places for locals to have a closer look.  Some of the stone work around the great west door had to be removed for the bell to fit through.  The bell was hung so perfectly that a single man could swing it through 120 degrees.  The final cost of the bell was £1,806, with half of this cost being met by Canon Nolloth.  Metal from the old bell was used in casting other new bells elsewhere.

 

John Taylor and Co Bell founders and Bell Hangers was formed in 1784 by members of the Taylor family, who were part of a line of bell founders dating back to Johannes de Stafford in the 14th century.  In 1839 Taylor and Co moved to Loughborough. Before then the company had foundries in Oxford and St Neots between 1786 and 1854. The company manufactures bells for use in clock towers, change ringing peals, chimes, and carillons in both the UK and the USA, including ‘Big George’ (a 14 ton bell, the second largest in Britain) in Liverpool Cathedral.  Their bells are famous for the Taylor Five Tone Principle, perfected in 1896. The Company website explains this thus: “The five principles are:  the hum, fundamental, tierce, quint and nominal, but these in turn influence and affect many others. When the correct frequency for each of these harmonics has been achieved, the bell is in tune with itself.  This gives Taylor bells their special characteristic and sets them apart from all other cast bronze bells. This sets Taylor bells apart from other bells and makes them best bell makers in the United Kingdom.”

Following a merger with fellow bell company Eayre & Smith Ltd it became known as Taylor, Eayre and Smith Ltd between 2005 and 2009 until the company fell into administration in September 2009. Eventually the UK Bellfounders Ltd bought the company and re-established its original name.  There are currently no Taylors working within the company.  The foundry also has a museum about bells and bell founding, the only one of its kind in the UK. 

York Minster is the second largest gothic cathedral in Northern Europe (behind Cologne Cathedral), and the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second highest office in the Church of England. There have been several different churches constructed on the site of the Minster, with the first recorded a wooden church built in 627, used to baptise Edwin the King of Northumberland.  This was shortly followed by a stone structure in 637, and for the next several centuries the church went through a cycle of destruction and rebuilding:  in 741 it was destroyed by a fire and in 1069 was badly damaged during William the Conquers ‘harrowing of the north’.  The construction of a Gothic style Cathedral did not begin until 1220 when the then Archbishop of York, William De Grey, ordered the construction of a Gothic structure to compare to Canterbury; the building of which continued through to the 15th century.

The clerk of the works, the receiver of the bell – in this case Mr Green – is now known as the superintendent of the works.  He would have overseen the work positioning the bell and its maintenance.  Originally, in medieval times, this would have been a monk or a priest, before craftsmen became sufficiently educated to take on the role.  

At the time of the film the Archbishop of York was William Temple (between 1929 and 1942, becoming Archbishop of Canterbury between 1942 and 1944). Temple was born in 1881 in Exeter and was the second son of Frederick Temple who was a former archbishop of Canterbury (between 1896 and 1902). Educated at Rugby and Oxford University, he received a first in classics and was the president of the Oxford Union.  Before he was a member of the clergy Temple served as the first President of the Workers Educational and a was member of the Labour Party; hence his advocacy of economic and social reform, as seen in his book Christianity and Social Order, published in 1941, which had an influence on the Beveridge Report of the following year.

References

Harry Batsford and Charles Fry, The Cathedrals of England, Batsford, 2011.

David Potter, The Bells and Bellringers of York Minster, York: Quacks Books, 2009

William Temple, Christianity and Social Order, Shepheard-Walwyn, 1942.

Ann Willey, York Minster, London: Scala, 1988

John Taylor & Co

Bell foundry faces administration

Historic foundry future secure

York minster a very brief history

Further reading

Alec Clifton-Taylor, The Cathedrals of England, Thames and Hudson, 1967.