History of the Bells at Rochester Cathedral

The first reference to bells at the Cathedral are recorded in the Registrum Roffense and in the chronicles of William of Dene in Anglia Sacra. These references refer to bells that were in the original Saxon Cathedral founded by St. Augustine in 604 A.D..

The earliest references to bells in the current Cathedral started by Gundulf date from 1154 where it is recorded that Prior Reginald "fecit duas campanas et posuit eas in majore turri. Una fracta apposita est ad aliam campanam faciendam". (made two bells and put them in the greater tower. Another bell was made from a cracked one). The greater tower mentioned here refers to the Gundulf Tower which still stands on the north side of the cathedral.

 In 1343, Bishop Hamo de Hythe caused the central tower to be heightened, "necnon et quatuor campanas novas in eodem ponere quaram nomina sunt hec:- Dunstanus, Paulinus, Itamarus atque Lanfrancus." (and further (caused) to hang in the same four new bells whose names are:- Dunstan, Paulinus, Itamar, and Lanfranc). By 1545, there were six bells hanging in the central tower. In 1635 the third bell of the six was recast, and, from the inscriptions on the bells, it was shown that the following work was carried out during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries:-

 1635                    Third bell recast.

 1683                    Fifth and tenor bells recast.

 1695                    Treble bell recast by John Wood of Chancery Lane, London.

1712                    Fourth bell recast by James Bagley of Cripplegate, London.

 At the beginning of the 20^th Century, the tower and spire were rebuilt. In 1904, on the 1300th anniversary of the founding of the Cathedral, the new tower and spire were dedicated by Dr. Randall Davidson, the then Archbishop of Canterbury. At the same time, four of the six bells were recast by Mears and Stainbank of Whitechapel, and two more bells were added, also cast by Mears and Stainbank, to produce a ring of eight bells, tuned to the key of D Major, the tenor weighing 26cwt. All of this work was at the expense of Thomas Hellyar Foord.

Unusually, considering the life expectancy of a ring of bells, in 1920 the Dean and Chapter commissioned Gillett and Johnston of Croydon to recast the existing eight bells and to add two more to bring the number of bells to ten