The Church Bells of the County and City of Lincoln (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 Excerpt: ...when a fire broke out in the belfry, and Ingulph, the chronicler of the Abbey, and its then abbot, running to the church door, and attempting to get in, had a narrow escape of being killed by the " melted brass " of the bells which poured down; the tower fell, and the bells and belfries were consumed. After this great fire, when the monks set to work to rebuild their church, they erected " an humble belfry and placed therein "--says the chronicler--" two small bells which Fergus the coppersmith of Saint Botolph's town Boston had lately presented to us, there to remain until years of greater prosperity, when we propose by the.Lord's assistance to make alterations in all these matters for the better." In 1091 Senian de Lek was appointed Keeper of the Church. Ingulph's Chronicle and Continuations (Bohn's Ed.), p. 107. f De Croylandia Memorabilia, Gresley's Gatty's Ecclesiastical Bell, Papers of Ed. p. 13. Ass. Arch. Societies, Hi. p. 258. Amongst other duties he was to ring all the notices in the church both in the night and in the daytime, with a few exceptions, when the duty was performed by the monks. Ingulph, who was elected Abbot in 1075, replaced the books, vestments, bells, and other requisites before his death, which took place in 1109. About the year 1171 the church, with its outbuildings and most of its furniture, was again destroyed by fire, but was quickly restored by Abbot Edward, who then ruled the house. Whether the bells suffered is not told. Abbot Ralph Merske (1253-1281) erected a Campanile or detached building, at the East end of the church which was known as the "outward belfry;" and John de Asheby, abbot, who died in 1392, gave, or else recast, " the large bells hanging in the outward belfry.&qu...