Unto the poor then you must pay twelve pence;
And if that you desire to be enrolled
A ringer here these orders keep and hold.
But whoso doth these orders disobey,
Unto the stocks we will take him straight way,
There to remain until he be willing
To pay his forfeit, and the clerk a shilling.
Churchwardens’ accounts abound with bell charges. We have before us the accounts of the churchwardens of Youlgreave, in the Peak of Derbyshire, for a period of a century and a half. Under the year 1604 we have “Item to the ringers on the Coronation Day (James I.), 2s. 6d.; for mending the Bels agaynst that day, 1s.; and for fatchinge the great bell yoke at Stanton hall, [p 127] 6d.” In 1605 there is “Item for a rope for a little bell, 5d.” In the following year is “Item to the Ringers the 5th day of August, when thanks was given to God for the delyvering of King James from the conspiracye of the Lord Gowyre, 5s.” In 1613 we find the sum of 6d. expended in purchasing “a stirropp for the fyrst bell wheele, 8d.” The year 1614 is prolific in charges connected with the belfry, as the following enumeration will show: “Item for the bellefonder, his dinner, and his sonnes, with other chargs at the same time, 10d.; at the second coming of the sayd bellfonder, 9d.; at the taking downe of the bell, 6d.; for castyng the fyrst bell, £4; for the surplus mettall which wee bought of the bellfounder because the new bell waeghed more than ye old, £3 15s. 10d.; to the bellfounder’s men, 4d.; for the carryage of our old bell to Chesterfield, 3s.; for carrying the great bell clapper to Chesterfield, 4d.; for carrying the new bell from Chesterfield, 2s. 8d.; to Nicholos Hibbert, for hanging the said bell, 1s. 1d.; to Nicholas Hibbert the younger, for amending the great bell yoke and wheele, 6d.; spent at Gybs house at the bellfounder’s last coming, 3d.; for amending the great bell clapper, 10d.”
[p 128]
The inscriptions on church bells would make an interesting chapter. On the second bell at Aston-on-Trent appears in Lombardic capitals, the words, “Jhesus be our spede, 1590,” and on the fourth bell is inscribed, “All men that heare my mournful sound, repent before you lye in ground, 1661.” The fourth bell of S. Werburgh’s at Derby is inscribed—
My roaring sounde doth warning geve