INDUSTRIES 



BELL-FOUNDER'S 



SEAL FROM RIVER 



THAMES 



from written records. The earliest of these is of 

 a John ' le Belyctarc,' or bell-founder, who was 

 reeve of the city of Bristol 

 in 1236. In 1270 the re- 

 cords of Gloucester tell of 

 the death of ' Hugh the Bell- 

 founder.' Hugh's business 

 apparently descended to his 

 daughter, Christiana, who is 

 also described as a ' belyetare' 

 in 1303,* and John of 

 Gloucester, a famous founder 

 of the next two reigns, was 

 very probably of the same 

 family. John made bells for 

 Edward II, 1 and in 1346 

 cast four large bells for the 

 West Tower of Ely Cathedral. A seal of about 

 the year 1330, bearing a bell-founder's mark (a 

 bell and laver) and also the inscription ' S' Sandre. 

 de Gloucestre ' has been fished out of the Thames, 

 and given rise to various conjectures. All that 

 can be safely asserted is that this seal was prob- 

 ably the property of one of the mediaeval 

 bell-founders of Gloucester whose works have 

 survived though their names have perished. 

 But we believe that we can identify one 

 15th-century founder at Gloucester in Robert 

 Hendley, whose name survives on the fourth 

 bell of St. Nicholas, Gloucester. This bears 

 the marks which Mr. Ellacombe, the great 

 authority on Gloucestershire bells, has called, 

 from their, prevalence in the 

 county, the ' Gloucester Cross 

 and Stop.' Hendley was followed 

 in the next century by William 

 Henshawe and Richard Atkyns, 

 the former of whom was in such 

 repute at Gloucester that he was 

 five times elected mayor between 

 1503 and 1520. It is his foundry 

 which is believed to have given 

 its name to 'Bell Lane.' Three 

 other founders : I. B., who nou- 

 rished 1580-1610, H. Farmer 

 1602-22, and J. Palmer 1621- 

 62, were succeeded by the 

 Rudhalls, one of the most famous families 

 of bell-founders that England has ever known. 

 They came from Ross in Herefordshire. Abra- 

 ham, the first of the Gloucester founders, died 

 in *735> 'famed for his great skill, beloved 

 and esteemed for his singular good nature and 

 integrity,' according to an inscription in the 

 cloisters of his native cathedral. Between 

 1684, when he cast his first bell (now at 

 Oddington), and 1715 Abraham Rudhall cast 

 1,291 bells, 'to the satisfaction,' says his cata- 

 logue, ' of them that understand music, ringing 

 and good bells.' He was followed in succession 



GLOUCESTER 



STOP USED 



BY HENDLEY 



by his son Abraham and his descendants, Abel, 

 Thomas, Charles, and John. The family cast 

 altogether 4,521 bells, including four rings of 

 12, ten of 10, eighty-two of 8, two hundred 

 and ninety-five of 6, and a hundred and thirty- 

 one of 5 bells. Of these many found their 

 way to the continent and even to America, 

 but a very large number arc still preserved in 

 Gloucestershire. Their especial characteristic 

 was the running ornament that decorates their in- 

 scriptions, which are excellent both in sense and 

 workmanship. There is, too, a cheerful and 

 patriotic tone about these legends. ' Peace and 

 good neighbourhood ' is a common one of 

 Abraham RudhalPs. 'Let us ring for peace 



RUDHALL'S BELL MARK 



and plenty ' is another of his at Alderton, bear- 

 ing the date 1713. 'When you us ring we'll 

 sweetly sing, A.R. 1739' is the legend on a bell 

 at Withington. A Badgeworth bell relates the 

 following piece of history : 



Badgworth . Ringers . they . were . mad . 

 Because . Rigbe . made . me . bad . 

 But . Abel . Rudhall . as . you . see . 

 Hath . made . me . bigger . than . Rigbe . 



Perhaps one of the best surviving whole 

 peals cast by the Rudhall foundry is the ring of 

 eight in St. Stephen's Church, Bristol. The 

 last of their bells in Gloucestershire were prob- 

 ably the third and tenor at Dymock, dated 1827 

 and 1829. On the extinction of the family in 

 1830 their business was sold to T. Mears, who 

 shortly removed it to Whitechapel. Cainscross 

 has a bell marked 'T. Mears, Gloucester & 

 London, fecit. 1831,' and Tcwkesbury Abbey 

 has two bells ' cast at Gloucester by T. Mears, 



1 W. H. Stevenson, Ghuc. Cal. 

 ' J. J. Powell, Glouceitriana. 



Bristol meanwhile had never wholly lost its 

 early reputation for bell-founding. 'John le 

 Belyetare ' had been succeeded by two other 

 mediaeval founders, John Gosselyn (c. 1450)* 

 and William Warwick, the latter of whom has 

 left bells at Yate and at Hereford Cathedral. 

 Bells dating about 1400-50 are found in 

 Gloucestershire with the stamp of a ship, indi- 

 cating that they were cast in Bristol ; these may 

 be the work of John Gosselyn. Subsequently 

 we find many bells in Gloucestershire and 

 Somersetshire bearing the initials R. T., H. I., 

 and T. G. ; of these the last-named stand for 

 Thomas Gefferies of Bristol, whose will is in 

 existence, dated 1546. H. I. may have been 



205 



' F. B. Bickley, Little ReJ Bock, i, 88 ; ii, 161, 169. 



