Dover, St Mary in Castro

DOVER, St Mary in Castro
(or St Mary in the Castle)

	Central tower contains one bell hung for swing chiming
	Also a disused bell at the west end of the nave
	There were formerly 6 bells.
	Tower bell 4˝ cwt approx. in D

	Canterbury District
	Frame: 1880 John Warner & Sons
	Retuning: Never subsequently retuned
	Hung for swing chiming

DETAILS OF THE BELLS

Bell

Weight

Diameter

Cast

Founder

Tower bell	4˝ cwt approx.	28ž"	1880	John Warner & Sons
West end bell	2ź cwt approx.	20"	1639	John Clifton

Tower	CAST BY JOHN WARNER & SONS LONDON 1880
	CHURCH OF S. MARY THE VIRGIN WITHIN THE CASTLE, DOVER 1880.
West	I C 1639

FORMER RING OF 6 BELLS

The following is a conjectured model of what bells might have been been in the tower. There are records of the weight of the treble and tenor, an approximate weight for the 5th, and a founder and inscription (or near rendition of inscription) for the 5th.

Bell

Weight
Diameter
Pitch

Cast

Founder

1

9-2-14

c.38"

A#

1345
?

2

?

c.41"

G#

?
?

3

?

c.45"

F#

?
?

4

?

c.48"

E#

?
?

5

26ž cwt approx.

c.54"

D#

c1360-80
Stephen Norton

6

38-0-10

c.60"

C#

1381
?

5. DOMINVS ROBERTVS DE ASTONE MILES ME FECIT FIERI Ao QVARTO R. RICARDI SEDI G.

STEPNE NORTON OF KENT
ME MADE IN GOD INTENT

1154-1189	This is the reign of Henry II during which tradition states that a ring of 5 was placed in the tower.
1345	Two new bells were cast for the tower at a cost of Ł15 18s. 5źd. These weighed 4266 lb and 1078 lb.
1381	A bell was cast by Stephen Norton (4th year of the reign of Richard II) as a gift from Sir Edward Dering of Surrenden, Little Chart (preserved in the Surrenden MSS recorded by Arch Cant Vol I and repeated by Stahlschmidt in 1887). This is supposed to have been the 5th of a ring of 6, with the tenor and treble quoted above in 1345. With such a large ring of bells, it is now likely they hung in the central tower: they were hitherto thought to hang in the Pharos.
1639	Small bell cast by John Clifton. This is now disused. It seems to have been the clock bell for the ancient clock now preserved in the Science Museum, South Kensington. It may have also been used as a bell to summon the garrison as it has a clapper suspended by a staple.
1690	The church was closed and the 6 bells sold. There is a reference (see below) that the old five went to St Thomas, Portsmouth (now Portsmouth Cathedral), although this is not substantiated. It seems most likely that they were sent to Portsmouth dockyard, smashed up and made into cannons.
1861	Church restored. The Clifton bell was used.
1880	Bell cast by John Warner.

Archaeologia Cantiana Vol. 1

In the description of the church by Sir Edward Dering of Surrenden Dering, near Little Chart, he describes a brass to Sir Robert Aston, Constable of Dover Castle, ob. 1384. He then notes: "The circumscription of the Great bell heere and weing 3000 lb weight and which was the gift of that Sr. Robert Astone, hath every letter fayre and curiously cast, and each crowned with a ducal croen:

DOMINVS ROBERTVS DE ASTONE MILES ME FECIT FIERI AO QVARTO R. RICARDI SEDI C

STEPNE NORTON OF KENT
ME MADE IN GOD INTENT"

"The Times", 16th Feb, 1866, pg 5, col. f

In the reign of Henry II, a peal of five bells was placed in the Pharos of Dover Castle, which soon gained celebrity far and wide for the harmonious tones they were said to possess. In after years Prince George of Denmark, at the request of Sir George Rooke, had these bells removed from the old Pharos at Dover and presented them to the citizens of Portsmouth, who hung them with considerable exultation and formality, in the tower of the town church, an edifice erected by Peter de Rupeleus in 1210-1220, and dedicated to St Thomas ŕ Becket. Three other bells were afterwards added and subsequently, owing to some fancied defect in harmony of the tones of the eight, the five ancient ones were taken down and recast, as an inscription on them testifies, by one "Myers, of London." The townsmen soon learnt to love, or to say they loved, their bells, and there exists a tradition that in their sounds there is a weird tone peculiar to themselves, and widely different to all other peals, such as seaman in the older times, when lying becalmed in their ships in the narrow strait which separates the coasts of England and France, have heard chiming out so strangely from the loftiest point of Dover Heights. In this 19th matter-of-fact century romance necessarily has been banished from our councils national and municipal, and, among other radical changes, the good folk of Portsmouth, in common with many others, have exercised the discretionary power given them by the laws and banished, with romance, compulsory church-rates. With the abolition of the rate for the church was inaugurated a retrenchment of church expenditure in all that tended to the personal gratification of the parishioners, and, as a natural and not unforeseen result, the bells, which for some time had required some little attention and expenditure of money bestowed upon them, became silent. Such a state of things could not endure for ever, and various spasmodic attempts have been made for raising a fund for resuscitating the famous bells. No great success attended the first efforts, but a recently and better organised scheme for "re-hanging the bells of the church of St. Thomas" has met with better results, and there is now a certainty of the bells soon again flinging out their daily pœans of melody.