The history of bellringers & bellringing - Newspaper Extracts

Newspaper reports and adverts are one of the major sources for the history of change ringing, and tell us much more than the bare records contained in peal and name books. In the Order and Disorder series John Eisel has brought together extracts from numerous early newspapers. These snipets of the history of ringing give us a fascinating insight into the beginings of our art.

Order and Disorder in the Eighteenth Century

Many of the performances are not recorded elsewhere, and we learn personal details that are otherwise unavailable. For this reason, for many years historians of ringing have searched local newspapers in their area. Early pioneers include J. Armiger Trollope, of Norwich and London, and Samuel Slater, of Glemsford. In the 1950s David Cubitt began his researches in the West Yorkshire papers, and continued when he moved to Norwich. From the 1960s onwards Cyril Wratten began his work in collecting together all the newspaper reports he could locate, both from other collections, such as the Slater Collection, and reports published in Bell News and the Ringing World, and then by primary research, particularly in the 1970s. At that period research was much more difficult than now, with hard copies of newspapers often still in the office of the publisher, making the identification and access much more difficult. The work reached its peak in the 1970s, and Cyril was helped in this work by a number of other historians who searched local newspapers. For obvious reasons Cyril did not need to list those who helped, but after his death, when preparing his collection for publication, I have identified the following contributors to the eighteenth century part of the collection.

A number of other contributors are acknowledged directly in the text, and David Cubitt helped by proof-reading the Norwich reports, cross-checking with his own collection. Here it should pointed out that some of these have been transcribed successively more than once, and errors of transcription can be introduced at every stage. This sort of help was kindly given by Alan Glover, by checking the Shrewsbury reports against his own personal collection.

Shortly after this collection was published in 2011, I was given access to a digitised collection of eighteenth-century newspapers, which I was able to search electronically, a much quicker process than by searching hard copy, but not infallible. The main thrust of Cyril’s collection is reports from local newspapers, and the Burney Collection was mainly of London newspapers, so this has filled a gap, and has supplied much extra information on ringing in London in the eighteenth century.

I have also subscribed to the British Newspaper Archive, a website the content of which is based on digitised runs of nineteenth-century newspapers, but with both earlier and later newspapers. The content is gradually being added to, and as new material has been added, this has been searched for reports of interest. This new material has been published as appendices in the subsequent volumes in the Order and Disorder series. In addition, newspaper reports have been sent directly to me by Chris Pickford, Chris Ridley, David Cubitt, Gareth Davies, and others, and these are acknowledged in the text. All this extra material has been integrated into combined files for the eighteenth century. Of course, further material will continue to be found, but it is expected that the bulk has already been found.

The main thrust of the collection is in telling the story of the development of change ringing, although there are many extracts relating to bellfounders and their work, and the publicity surrounding this. There are also public notices about bankruptcies, which help to tell something of the uncertain background to the bellfounding business, and these were published in the London Gazette, but repeated in the country papers. Those extracts used are mostly those that I abstracted from the Hereford Journal, although they could be replicated from most of the newspapers in the country, but for the same of completeness I did a search of the on-line London Gazette, which added more background – and a couple of bellfounders’ names. However, these may not be founders of church bells. At that period church bells were a well-recognised part of the fabric of society, and were rung for many occasions. As a result, most newspapers have many news reports about bells being rung for celebration etc., and only a few such reports are included in this collection as a sample of what can be found. However, it is from newspaper reports that the development of change ringing in the century can be traced, ringers being keen to publicise what they had achieved, often through a paid advertisement.

Those who do such research in newspapers will be aware of how easy it is to overlook items of interest, and while the main extracts have been identified, it is always worth looking out for others, just in case!

EDITORIAL CONVENTIONS

A number of conventions have been used in this database of newspaper reports relating to bells and change ringing.

Firstly, the extracts had been sorted into chronological order within each year.

Thirdly, for much of the eighteenth century a long f was used as an s as a convention in certain positions of that letter in the printed word. For the extracts, it is evident that many had been transcribed using an ordinary letter. For the sake of consistency, all such letters have been rendered in the now conventional way, and I am very grateful to Chris Pickford for using his expertise and spending some considerable time in ‘cleaning up’ the electronic version in the original version of this database. It gave a much-needed boost at a stage when I had begun to flag! There is at least one case where there is an ambiguity, it not being clear whether and f or s was intended, and this has been flagged up in the text.

Fourthly, in the extracts there is much repetition as reports were copied, more-or-less verbatim, from newspaper to newspaper. However, after the transcript of the newspaper report I have given the newspaper from which it was first transcribed, and listed after where it was later also found. The first newspaper listed is therefore not necessarily the primary source. This is in case there were minor differences such as in capitalisation when reports were copied from one paper to another.

Fifthly, the extracts have been left essentially in chronological order, with the exception that certain series of connected extracts have been grouped together in a position determined by the date of the first of the series, and listed under a suitable heading. This is to enable such series to be appreciated without having other extracts mixed in. It is hoped that this will make the extracts more readable.

Sixthly, spelling in the eighteenth century was not standardised to the extent that it is now and so, in certain cases, to emphasise that a variation in the spelling is as in the original and not a typographical error, it has been thought necessary to add [sic] afterwards. Other variations in spelling which are thought to be obvious, such as Tripples/Triples, intitled/entitled, compleat/complete, are not generally so marked. Any added editorial comments/explanations/corrections/additions are given in square brackets thus [...]. Also, at the period under discussion, the symbol £ was not in common use, the letter l – for libra – being used. However, to help modern readers, a sum that was given as 20l. in the original, has been given in the form 20£.

Finally, where I have had access to a newspaper where adverts are given, these adverts are laid out approximately as they were in the original hard copy. Doing this for adverts which were collected by others has enabled me to check the transcript for errors. Any adverts which have not been so laid out have not been checked against the original.

Newspaper names in the eighteenth century tended to be longer than those used now. To improve legibility, these have been cut down after the first time of occurrence. Thus after the initial extract from Read’s Weekly Journal, or British-Gazetteer this newspaper would be referred to as Read’s Weekly Journal. Similarly, to save a small amount of space, newspapers such as The Worcester Post-Man are just referred to as Worcester Post-Man, the definite article being omitted. Also, certain of the newspapers changed their name during the course of the century, and these changes are noted in the list of newspapers quoted.

Whereas the original printed volume was intended that it could be browsed through, and so was leavened with appropriate illustrations, and also indexed, this present database – considerably longer than the first version - is designed to be searched electronically, and to easily abstract information on any desired topic. Despite all the editing down, there is a considerable body of text, and it is hoped that this database will prove useful to historians of ringing, and to those who might just be interested in reports of ringing at their own tower.

John Eisel

September 2023

Newspaper reports and adverts are one of the major sources for the history of change ringing, and tell us much more than the bare records contained in peal and name books. In the Order and Disorder series John Eisel has brought together extracts from numerous early newspapers. These snipets of the history of ringing give us a fascinating insight into the beginings of our art.

Order and Disorder in the Eighteenth Century

Many of the performances are not recorded elsewhere, and we learn personal details that are otherwise unavailable. For this reason, for many years historians of ringing have searched local newspapers in their area. Early pioneers include J. Armiger Trollope, of Norwich and London, and Samuel Slater, of Glemsford. In the 1950s David Cubitt began his researches in the West Yorkshire papers, and continued when he moved to Norwich. From the 1960s onwards Cyril Wratten began his work in collecting together all the newspaper reports he could locate, both from other collections, such as the Slater Collection, and reports published in Bell News and the Ringing World, and then by primary research, particularly in the 1970s. At that period research was much more difficult than now, with hard copies of newspapers often still in the office of the publisher, making the identification and access much more difficult. The work reached its peak in the 1970s, and Cyril was helped in this work by a number of other historians who searched local newspapers. For obvious reasons Cyril did not need to list those who helped, but after his death, when preparing his collection for publication, I have identified the following contributors to the eighteenth century part of the collection.

A number of other contributors are acknowledged directly in the text, and David Cubitt helped by proof-reading the Norwich reports, cross-checking with his own collection. Here it should pointed out that some of these have been transcribed successively more than once, and errors of transcription can be introduced at every stage. This sort of help was kindly given by Alan Glover, by checking the Shrewsbury reports against his own personal collection.

Shortly after this collection was published in 2011, I was given access to a digitised collection of eighteenth-century newspapers, which I was able to search electronically, a much quicker process than by searching hard copy, but not infallible. The main thrust of Cyril’s collection is reports from local newspapers, and the Burney Collection was mainly of London newspapers, so this has filled a gap, and has supplied much extra information on ringing in London in the eighteenth century.

I have also subscribed to the British Newspaper Archive, a website the content of which is based on digitised runs of nineteenth-century newspapers, but with both earlier and later newspapers. The content is gradually being added to, and as new material has been added, this has been searched for reports of interest. This new material has been published as appendices in the subsequent volumes in the Order and Disorder series. In addition, newspaper reports have been sent directly to me by Chris Pickford, Chris Ridley, David Cubitt, Gareth Davies, and others, and these are acknowledged in the text. All this extra material has been integrated into combined files for the eighteenth century. Of course, further material will continue to be found, but it is expected that the bulk has already been found.

The main thrust of the collection is in telling the story of the development of change ringing, although there are many extracts relating to bellfounders and their work, and the publicity surrounding this. There are also public notices about bankruptcies, which help to tell something of the uncertain background to the bellfounding business, and these were published in the London Gazette, but repeated in the country papers. Those extracts used are mostly those that I abstracted from the Hereford Journal, although they could be replicated from most of the newspapers in the country, but for the same of completeness I did a search of the on-line London Gazette, which added more background – and a couple of bellfounders’ names. However, these may not be founders of church bells. At that period church bells were a well-recognised part of the fabric of society, and were rung for many occasions. As a result, most newspapers have many news reports about bells being rung for celebration etc., and only a few such reports are included in this collection as a sample of what can be found. However, it is from newspaper reports that the development of change ringing in the century can be traced, ringers being keen to publicise what they had achieved, often through a paid advertisement.

Those who do such research in newspapers will be aware of how easy it is to overlook items of interest, and while the main extracts have been identified, it is always worth looking out for others, just in case!

EDITORIAL CONVENTIONS

A number of conventions have been used in this database of newspaper reports relating to bells and change ringing.

Firstly, the extracts had been sorted into chronological order within each year.

Thirdly, for much of the eighteenth century a long f was used as an s as a convention in certain positions of that letter in the printed word. For the extracts, it is evident that many had been transcribed using an ordinary letter. For the sake of consistency, all such letters have been rendered in the now conventional way, and I am very grateful to Chris Pickford for using his expertise and spending some considerable time in ‘cleaning up’ the electronic version in the original version of this database. It gave a much-needed boost at a stage when I had begun to flag! There is at least one case where there is an ambiguity, it not being clear whether and f or s was intended, and this has been flagged up in the text.

Fourthly, in the extracts there is much repetition as reports were copied, more-or-less verbatim, from newspaper to newspaper. However, after the transcript of the newspaper report I have given the newspaper from which it was first transcribed, and listed after where it was later also found. The first newspaper listed is therefore not necessarily the primary source. This is in case there were minor differences such as in capitalisation when reports were copied from one paper to another.

Fifthly, the extracts have been left essentially in chronological order, with the exception that certain series of connected extracts have been grouped together in a position determined by the date of the first of the series, and listed under a suitable heading. This is to enable such series to be appreciated without having other extracts mixed in. It is hoped that this will make the extracts more readable.

Sixthly, spelling in the eighteenth century was not standardised to the extent that it is now and so, in certain cases, to emphasise that a variation in the spelling is as in the original and not a typographical error, it has been thought necessary to add [sic] afterwards. Other variations in spelling which are thought to be obvious, such as Tripples/Triples, intitled/entitled, compleat/complete, are not generally so marked. Any added editorial comments/explanations/corrections/additions are given in square brackets thus [...]. Also, at the period under discussion, the symbol £ was not in common use, the letter l – for libra – being used. However, to help modern readers, a sum that was given as 20l. in the original, has been given in the form 20£.

Finally, where I have had access to a newspaper where adverts are given, these adverts are laid out approximately as they were in the original hard copy. Doing this for adverts which were collected by others has enabled me to check the transcript for errors. Any adverts which have not been so laid out have not been checked against the original.

Newspaper names in the eighteenth century tended to be longer than those used now. To improve legibility, these have been cut down after the first time of occurrence. Thus after the initial extract from Read’s Weekly Journal, or British-Gazetteer this newspaper would be referred to as Read’s Weekly Journal. Similarly, to save a small amount of space, newspapers such as The Worcester Post-Man are just referred to as Worcester Post-Man, the definite article being omitted. Also, certain of the newspapers changed their name during the course of the century, and these changes are noted in the list of newspapers quoted.

Whereas the original printed volume was intended that it could be browsed through, and so was leavened with appropriate illustrations, and also indexed, this present database – considerably longer than the first version - is designed to be searched electronically, and to easily abstract information on any desired topic. Despite all the editing down, there is a considerable body of text, and it is hoped that this database will prove useful to historians of ringing, and to those who might just be interested in reports of ringing at their own tower.

John Eisel

September 2023