Sacring bells were, it is believed, to be found in all churches before the Reformation; they were rung to inform the congregation that the Elevation of the Host was about to take place. There is some difficulty in distinguishing between this bell and the Sanctus Bell, they seem in many cases to be the same, and in others separate. A small sacring bell was discovered in Bottesford Church (Lincolnshire) during its restoration in 1870. When the plaster was removed from the west end of the southern aisle it was seen that one of the stones in the wall was merely loosely placed in position, not built firmly in like the rest of the masonry; it was removed, and behind it, in a hole evidently made on purpose to receive it, was the bell. This bell is now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries, and a full description of it is given in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2nd series, vol. 5, p. 24.
There was formerly a small bell at Hemswell, named the Agnus Bell; it may perhaps have been so called by reason of its being rung at the Elevation, which was immediately followed by the singing of the Agnus Dei. The following alludes to it:—“Itm ... an agnus bell gone owtt of the fore sayd churche, no man knoweth how, ano dome a thowssand five hundreth three schore and fowre.”[2]
In many churches, bells and other articles were returned in 1566 as lost or missing, and no reasonable explanation of the apparently gross carelessness given. There can be but little doubt that they were secretly taken away in order that they might escape destruction; in some cases it may be that they were hidden like the bell at Bottesford, but it is probable that more often they were taken to the houses of the people who saved them; and that in after years they were lost or destroyed. Under Glenthworth, there is an entry, which seems to point to the fact that the bell was thus disposed of “A hand bell—gone, we cannot tell how, the same year,” (1566).[3]
It seems to have been by no means uncommon to turn these small hand bells into mortars; we find this was done at Hemswell in 1566: “ij. hande belles, sold to Robertt Aestroppe one of the sayd churchwardens to make a mortar off.”[4]
Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne on November 17th, 1558, S. Hugh’s Day, and there are many entries to be found in churchwardens’ accounts for ringing the bells upon that day after this date. At Kirton-in-Lindsey there is the following statement in 1581:—“Item for mending the belles aganst Sant Hew day viijd;” and then again in 1597:—“Item vpon Sante Hue daye viij.” No doubt the first entry means that either the wooden framework, or else the cords of the bells needed some slight repairs; it could not have been the bells themselves. There is another entry in the Kirton-in-Lindsey accounts that is interesting, though of a somewhat later date. In 1630 we find:—“Item bestowed of the ringers in ayle for Joye of the younge Prince xij.” This was for ringing the bells upon the birth of Charles II.
In reading of these loyal payments one is reminded of the inscription upon the first bell at Witham-on-the-Hill, which evinces a very different spirit:—
“’Twas not to prosper pride or hate
William Augustus Johnson gave me;
But peace and joy to celebrate,
And call to prayer to heav’n to save ye:
Then keep the terms and e’er remember
May 29th ye must not ring
Nor yet the fifth of each November
Nor on the crowning of a king.”[5]
The Harvest Bell was rung in various parts of the country; at Barrow-on-Humber it was heard very early in the morning at daybreak in the eighteenth century, and then again late in the evening during the weeks of harvest. In some parishes it used to be the custom to ring a bell at eight o’clock in the morning as a signal that people might then begin to glean. In the Louth churchwardens’ accounts, in 1556, is the following:—“To william east for knylling the bell in harvest forgathering of the pescodes iiijd.” The Daily Telegraph, of 1st September, 1893, says:—“The ‘harvest bell’ is rung at the Parish Church, Driffield, at five a.m. and eight p.m. every day during harvest, the custom is a very old one.”
Advent was celebrated in some places by the ringing of the bells, usually, but not invariably, in the evening; the reason for this being that the ringers were at work during the day, and therefore it could only be done when the hours of labour were ended. On S. Thomas’s Day the bells were often rung; and it was a very widely spread, though not a universal, custom to ring them very early on the morn of Christmas Day. In the Kirton-in-Lindsey churchwardens’ account we see what the ringers obtained for so doing in 1630:—“It’ given to the Ringers at Christenmaise day at morne xijd.” The bells are, or were until lately, rung at five o’clock on Christmas morning at South Kelsey. In various parts of England they were rung in a great variety of ways during Lent and upon Good Friday; on Easter Sunday, too, there has always been great divergence as to the custom of bell-ringing. The Banns Peal is still to be heard in some places; this is a peal rung after the publication of banns of marriage, it is usually chimed after morning service on the first Sunday that the banns are “put up,” but this is by no means the universal practice, in some parishes it is rung on the first and third Sundays, in others on the third alone, and it varies yet again at Elsham and Searby, where it is given upon all three Sundays. Peals at Baptism are much rarer, but still there are parishes where it has been from time unknown usual to ring them. The curfew is yet to be heard in many places, though the hour varies, it being often rung at nine, and in some instances at seven o’clock, instead of at eight.
In pre-Reformation times the Passing Bell, instead of being rung as it now is after death, was then really and truly a “passing-bell,” for it was heard when a person was supposed to be at the point of death, in order that those in whose ears it sounded might of their charity pray for a soul so soon to be beyond human help. After the spirit had returned unto Him who gave it, the Soul Bell was rung, that the living might pray for the dead; this soul-bell, besides being rung a few hours after death, was sounded again at stated intervals, at the month’s end, the three months’ end, and so on. Surtees, the northern antiquary, alludes to this custom in the ballad of Sir John le Spring:—