The story of the earliest cathedral bells is lost. It was usual in early days to hang the bells in a separate tower somewhere in the cathedral precincts. Here, we know that in 1315 the bell tower was burnt down,—"Combustum fuit campanile cum campanis in clauso Lichfeldensi." The site of this tower was lately discovered in the bishop's garden. Dean Heywood, in 1477, gave a large bell to the cathedral—it was known as the Jesus Bell; the gift is mentioned in the Cantaria Sancti Blasii, where the cost is stated to be one hundred pounds. The bell bore this inscription:—
"I am the bell of Jesus, and Edward is our king,
Sir Thomas Heywood first caused me to ring."
This bell was hung in the south-west tower, which thus came to be called the Jesus-Bell Tower. The bell was destroyed during the Civil Wars. An ancient writer quoted by Shaw, after detailing the terrible fates of those who took part against religious houses and churches, says: "Nor shall I relate what happened to one, Pickins, a pewterer, who on July 26, 1653, knoct in pieces the fair bell called Jesus, at Lichfield, he being the chief officer appointed for demolishing that cathedral."
There was also a bell called the "Clocke Bell," which was hung in the lowest storey of the Jesus spire. It is shown in the south view given in Fuller's "Church History," and particular attention is there directed to it. The clock bell and all the others are now hung in the top storey of the tower.
There is also a small bell in the great central tower called "the Tantony": it formerly belonged to the Dyott family.
In the south-west tower is also the new Clock, which was put up in 1890. The face is underneath, in the west end of the south aisle of the nave; there is no outside face. The well-known Cambridge quarter chimes can, it is said, be heard at a distance of three miles.
In the green grass of the close are many tombstones, and round about the cathedral stone coffins have been dug up; on the north side of the choir is the traditional burying-place of two Mercian kings.