There are openings for two bells, but only one is now used. (See page [8].)
[CHAPTER II]
The English Bell-founders
In early mediaeval times it is probable that bell-founding was largely the work of the monastic orders. It was regarded rather as a fine art than a trade, and ecclesiastics seem to have vied in producing the most ingenious and recondite Latin rhyming verses to adorn their bells. S. Dunstan, whose skill as a smith is familiar to all, is known to have been instrumental in hanging, if not in casting bells; and at Canterbury he gave careful directions for their correct use. S. Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester 963–984, cast bells for Abingdon Abbey. In the museum at York there is a mortar of bell-metal cast by Friar William de Towthorpe, with the date 1308 (Plate [11]); but this belongs to later times, when a class of professional founders had sprung up, and is therefore exceptional. We read, however, of Sir William Corvehill, a monk of Wenlock Priory, who died shortly after its dissolution, in 1546, that he “could make organs, clocks, and chimes,” and was “a good bell-founder and maker of the frames for bells.” It has not been possible to trace his work in any existing bells.
Inner moulds or cores for casting a ring of eight bells.