i8 
Bells cast in a mould soon superseded the hammered and 
rivetted ones and gave an impulse to the development of the 
bell. The advantages of the new method were soon apparent, 
the size of the bell was gradually increased, so that bells began 
to be suspended in our churches. 
Bede mentions a bell at Whitby in 680, which, when rung on 
the death of the abbess Hilda, was heard by the nuns at 
Hackness; from this circumstance it may reasonably be 
concluded that large bells at this period were hung in other 
churches. 
At first, churches only possessed a single large bell: after¬ 
wards, to distinguish the different services, other bells were 
added, in tune with each other, and thus a ring of bells was 
formed. In the ninth century rings of bells were usual in the 
country, and in the next century bells are recorded bearing 
names which they received at their benediction, or baptism, as 
it was more generally termed. 
The city of York, from its ecclesiastical importance, would, 
as soon as the use of bells became recognised, have its Minster, 
churches, and monasteries furnished with them, and it is 
probable that a founder, under the patronage of some 
church dignitary, would set up a foundry in the city. The 
bellfounder, as his business increased, would have workmen, 
not only in York but in various parts of the country, travelling 
from place to place, erecting their temporary furnaces and 
casting bells close to the towers or turrets they were destined 
to occupy. 
Memorial Cross to a York Bellfounder. 
That bells were cast in York at an early period is evident, 
for in the church of St. Dennis was an ancient memorial cross 
to a bellfounder. On either side of the cross are symbolic 
devices, that on the dexter being a brazier or small furnace, 
whilst on the other side is a bell of early character. The 
slab (fig. 2) has been removed to the lower room of the 
“ Hospitium.” 
