English Industries of the Middle Ages / Being an Introduction to the Industrial History of Medieval England

by L. F. Salzman

The medieval English term for a bell-founder was 'bellyeter' (surviving in London as 'Billiter Street,' the former centre of the industry), derived from the Anglo-Saxon geotan, to pour: the word is occasionally found used independently as a verb, the agreement for casting a bell for Stansfield in 1453 stipulating that it should be 'wele and sufficiantly yette and made.'[310] So far as the process itself is concerned,[311] it remained unchanged in its main features until comparatively recent times and a considerable number of records relating to bell-founding have survived and throw a little light upon the details of the art. The first step was the formation of the 'core,' an exact model of the inside of the bell, formed of clay. When this had been hardened by baking, the 'thickness,' corresponding exactly to the projected bell itself, was built up upon the core; finally, over the 'thickness' was built a thick clay 'cope.' Originally, it would seem, it was usual to make the 'thickness' of wax, which, melting upon the application of heat, ran out and left the space between the core and cope vacant for the molten metal to flow into: possibly some of the early uninscribed bells which still exist may have been formed in this fashion, but it seems clear that from the end of the thirteenth century the use of wax was abandoned in England, the 'thickness' being made of loam or earth.[312] The clay cope, moulded over this, was carefully raised by a crane, the 'thickness' destroyed, and the cope readjusted, after any inscription or other decoration had been stamped on its inner surface. In order that the metal might flow directly from the furnace into the mould the latter lay in a pit in front of the furnace. The furnace doors being opened, the metal, consisting of a mixture of copper and tin, flowed into the mould. If the metal was not in a sufficiently fluid state, or if any check occurred the caster would 'lose his labour and expense,' as happened to Henry Michel when he recast the great bell of Croxden Abbey in 1313, and the work would have to be done all over again.[313] But if the work had been properly carried out the completed bell had to be tuned, unless, as was the case at St. Laurence's, Reading, in 1596, 'not so much the tune of the bell was cared for as to have it a loud bell and heard far.'[314]

The tuning was done by grinding, or cutting, down the rim of the bell if the note was too flat, or by reducing its thickness, filing down the inner surface of the sound bow, if the note was too sharp. In order to reduce the amount of tuning required it was necessary to know approximately the relation between size, or weight, and tone, and as early as the reign of Henry III. a monk of Evesham, Walter of Odyngton, devised a system by which each bell was to weigh eight-ninths of the bell next above it in weight.[315] This system, delightfully simple in theory, could not have yielded satisfactory results in practice, and it is probable that most founders had their own systems, based upon experience and practical observation. The question of whether a bell was correctly in tune with the others of the peal was one which naturally led to occasional disputes. When Robert Gildesburgh, brazier, of London, a fifteenth-century bell-founder, cast two bells for Whitchurch in Dorset, the vicar refused to pay for them, as he said they were out of tune. Gildesburgh requested that they should be submitted to the judgment of Adam Buggeberd, rector of South Peret, who accordingly came over and heard them rung, and decided that there was no fault in them.[316] In the case of the bells recast for the church of St. Mary-at-Hill, London, in 1510,[317] we have first an entry of 6½d. paid 'for Reves labour and his brekefast for comyng from Ludgate to Algate to here the iiij bell in tewne'; and then, as apparently the churchwardens were not satisfied with his report, 8d. paid 'for wyne and peres at Skran's howse at Algate for Mr. Jentyll, Mr. Russell, John Althorpe, John Condall and the clarkes of saynt Antonys to go and see whether smythes bell wer tewneabill or not.' Possibly the decision in the case of this fourth bell cast by William Smith was not satisfactory, as the 'great bell' seems to have been entrusted to William Culverden, a contemporary founder, many of whose bells, bearing his rebus of the culver or wood pigeon, still exist.

The bell having been fitted with an iron clapper, swung from a staple inside the crown of the bell by a leathern baudrick, was fastened on to a massive wooden stock furnished at its ends with gudgeons, or iron pivots, to work in the bronze sockets of the frame, and was now ready to be hung in the belfry. But although it was now a finished 'trade article,' there was yet one more process to be undergone before it could summon the faithful to church: it was usual, though apparently by no means universal, for the bells to be blessed. Thus the bells of St. Albans Abbey were consecrated in the middle of the twelfth century by the Bishop of St. Asaph;[318] and a detailed account of the dedication of the great bell called 'Jesus' at Lichfield Cathedral in 1477 has been preserved.[319] In the case of the five bells of St. Michael's, Bishop's Stortford, recast by Reginald Chirche of Bury St. Edmunds in 1489 at a cost of £42, an extra 17s. 6d. was paid 'for their consecration (pro sanctificacione).'[320] That the dedication ceremony included a form analogous to baptism is clearly shown by an entry in the accounts of St. Laurence, Reading, where, in 1508, we find 'paid for hallowing the great bell named Harry 6s. 8d. And over that Sir William Symys Richard Clich and Mistress Smyth being godfather and godmother at the consecracyon of the same bell, and bearing all the costs to the suffragan.'[321]

Of the early centres of the industry London was naturally the most important. Two early bell-founders of this city have already been mentioned, but it is noteworthy, as showing that to a certain extent a man might be 'jack of all trades' even if he was master of one, that several bells were cast for Westminster Abbey by Edward Fitz Odo, the famous goldsmith of Henry III.[322] That monarch, a patron of all the arts, granted 100s. yearly to the Bell-ringers' gild of Westminster for ringing the great bells.[323] Mr. Stahlschmidt has shown that the centre of the bell-founding trade was round Aldgate and in the neighbourhood of St. Andrew Undershaft and St. Botolph-without-Aldgate,[324] while amongst the more prominent early founders were the family of Wimbish at the beginning of the fourteenth century and the Burfords at the end of the same century. Contemporary with these last was William Founder, whose trade stamp, bearing his name and a representation of two birds on a conventionalised tree, occurs on a number of bells and hints at his real surname, which, although it has hitherto eluded historians, was clearly Wodeward. Mr. Stahlschmidt[325] noticed the entry on the Issue Rolls of 1385 recording the purchase of twelve cannon from William the founder, but did not notice that the very next year sixty cannon were bought from William Wodeward,[326] while in 1417 other cannon were provided by William Wodeward, founder.[327]

Amongst the provincial centres we may notice Gloucester, where Hugh Bellyetare occurs about 1270, and John Belyetere in 1346,[328] the latter being presumably the Master John of Gloucester, who with his staff of six men came to Ely in 1342 to cast four bells for Prior Walsingham.[329] A later bell-founder of some eminence at Gloucester was William Henshawe, who was mayor in 1503, 1508, and 1509.[330] Another of the craft who obtained more than local reputation was John de Stafford, mayor of Leicester in 1366 and 1370,[331] who was called in by the chapter of York to cast bells for the Minster in 1371.[332] This is the more remarkable as York was itself a centre of the industry, the most famous of its founders being Richard Tunnoc, who represented the city in Parliament in 1327, and dying in 1330, left behind him as a worthy memorial 'the bell-maker's window' in York Minster.[333] In the central panel of this window Richard Tunnoc himself is shown kneeling before a sainted archbishop; the two other panels show the process of bell-making. In the one the master workman is supervising the flow of the metal into the mould from a furnace, the draught of which is supplied by bellows worked by two young men, the one standing upon them with one foot on each and the other holding the handles. The remaining panel is usually said to represent the moulding of the clay core, but it seems to me more likely to represent the finishing, smoothing, and polishing of the completed bell.[334] Richard Tunnoc is shown seated holding a long crooked instrument (resembling a very large boomerang), and applying it with great care to the surface of the bell, or core, which an assistant is rotating on a primitive lathe consisting of two trestles and a crooked handle. The space round each panel is filled with rows of bells swinging in trefoiled niches.

The number of churches in the larger towns being much greater in medieval times than at the present day, and few of these churches being content with a single bell, most of the chief towns, and in particular those possessing cathedrals or important monasteries, had their resident bell-founders. In the case of Exeter, Bishop Peter de Quivil, about 1285, assured the proper care of the bells of the cathedral by granting a small property in Paignton to Robert le Bellyetere as a retaining fee, Robert and his heirs being bound to make or repair, when necessary, the bells, organs, and clock of the cathedral, the chapter paying all expenses, including the food and drink of the workmen, and these obligations were duly fulfilled for at least three generations, Robert, son of Walter, son of the original Robert, still holding the land on the same terms in 1315.[335] Canterbury was another local centre of the trade, and from Canterbury came the founder who in 1345 cast a couple of bells at Dover, the one weighing 3266 lbs., and the other 1078 lbs., for each of which he was paid at the rate of a halfpenny the pound.[336] In East Anglia there was an important foundry at the monastic town of Bury St. Edmunds, one of the fifteenth-century founders using as his trade mark a shield, which is interesting as bearing on it not only a bell, but also a cannon with a ball issuing from its mouth. Norwich, again, with its seventy churches and its cathedral priory, was a busy centre of the industry. One of the later Norwich founders, Richard Brasier, seems to have been more skilful than straightforward and to have devoted some of his skill to evading his obligations. In 1454 the churchwardens of Stansfield bargained with him to cast a bell for their church, half payment to be made on delivery and the other half at the expiration of a year and a day if the bell proved satisfactory, but if it did not he was to cast a new bell for them; he, however, taking advantage of their being unlearned men caused the latter clause to be omitted from the indenture, and when the bell proved unsatisfactory refused to make a fresh one.[337] A few years later, in 1468, the parishioners of Mildenhall brought an action against him for breach of contract. It had been agreed that the great bell of Mildenhall should be brought by the parishioners to 'the werkhous' of the said Richard Brasier and weighed by them, and that Brasier should then cast from the metal of the old bell a new tenor bell in tune with the others then in the church steeple, and should warrant it, as was customary, for a year and a day, and if it were not satisfactory should at his own expense take it back to Norwich 'to be yoten.' They had duly carried the bell to his workshop, but he had not cast it; in defence his counsel urged that although they had brought it they had not weighed it, and that until they did so he was not bound to cast it. On the other side it was argued that the point was frivolous, that he could have weighed it himself, and that indeed the indenture implied that it was to be weighed and put into the furnace by his men in the presence of the men of Mildenhall.[338] A jury was summoned, but did not appear, and the case was adjourned.

The suppression of the monasteries, followed by the seizure of Church goods, including large numbers of bells, formed the rude termination of the medieval period of the industry, and may be symbolised by the death of William Corvehill, formerly subprior of Wenlock, 'a good bell founder and maker of the frame for bells,' at Wenlock in 1546.[339]

We have seen that a cannon is shown on the shield used as a trade mark by a fifteenth-century Suffolk bell-founder, and the casting of Ordnance may rank with the casting of bells as one of the most interesting and important branches of the founder's craft. Cannon seem to have been introduced into England at the beginning of the reign of Edward III. In 1339 there were in the Guildhall 'six instruments of latten called gonnes and five roleres for the same. Also pellets of lead weighing 4½ cwt. for the same instruments. Also 32 lbs. of powder for the same.'[340] This same year guns are recorded to have been used by the English at the siege of Cambrai, and they were also used at Creçy in 1346. Two large and nine small 'gunnes' of copper were provided for Sheppey Castle in 1365;[341] but whether any of these were of native manufacture may be doubted, though a small gun sent over to Ireland in 1360 is said to have been bought in London,[342] which does not, of course, necessarily imply that it was made there. In 1385, however, the sheriff of Cumberland included in his account of repairs to the Castle of Carlisle 'costs incurred in making three brass cannons which are in the said castle,'[343] and in the same year 'William Founder,' as we saw when considering his work as a bell-founder, provided twelve guns. Next year the same William Wodeward made no less than sixty cannon for Calais.[344] As he was still providing ordnance in 1416,[345] we may probably identify him with 'Master William Gunmaker,' who made several small cannon in 1411, two of them being of iron.[346]

The early cannon were made of bronze of a similar composition to that used for bells, and when iron was introduced the cannon of that material were made in the form of a tube composed of long iron bars, arranged like the staves of a barrel, bound round with iron bands. They were all breech-loaders, consisting of two separate parts, the barrel and the chamber; the latter being a short cylinder, usually detachable, in which the charge of gunpowder was placed, and which was then fastened into the base of the barrel by means of a stirrup or similar apparatus. Double-barrelled cannon appear to have been fairly common, as in 1401 eight single cannon and six double (duplices) were sent to Dover Castle, and the same numbers to Scotland.[347] An inventory of the artillery at Berwick-on-Tweed taken at the same time[348] distinguishes between guns 'imbedded in timber bound with iron' and 'naked' guns; it also mentions 'two small brass guns on wooden sticks, called handgonnes,' an early instance of small arms. The same inventory refers to 'quarells for gonnes'; and in the previous year Henry Robertes, serjeant, dwelling near the Guildhall, was paid £8, 8s. for twenty-four 'quarell gunnes,'[349] these being guns which threw quarrels, or bolts similar to those used with crossbows.[350] The usual projectiles employed in the larger guns were round stone balls, such as had been in use for mangonels and catapults since the days of the Romans, and these were supplied from the quarries of Maidstone and elsewhere down to the time of Henry VIII. Iron 'gunstones' do not seem to have been made much before the end of the fifteenth century, and the 'wooden balls for cannon,' of which there were 350 at Dover in 1387,[351] can hardly have proved successful, but lead was commonly employed for the smaller guns from an early date.