THE OLD - Old Wirral.com

THE BELLS OF WIHRAL
be in tune with the other bells of the peal,
but the various tones of the individual bdil
must be in tune with one another, for the
bell tone is really a chord, i.e., a harmony
of several notes, and to get this tone perfect
is the highest triumph of the art.
Dr. Raven mentions that Bilbie of
Cullompton, Devon, a famous founder in
the early part of the nineteenth century,
committed suicide because he failed to get
a ring of bells in tune.
When a bell had been cast and tuned
and, in ancient times, baptized, it had to
be hung. For this purpose the early
churches seen to have favoured central
towers, but it is probable that a long
period elapsed before parish churches became
possessed of bell towers. Few are
earlier than the xivth century, and the
majority are much later. In Wirral, the
steeples of Eastham and Lower Bebington
churches are the oldest, and after them
come the common western towers of the
xivth and xvth centuries or Perpendicular
period, viz., Stoak, Backford,
HeswalKWest Kirby, Shotwick, Wallasey
(the old tower), and Bidston : Burton
church tower and the old one at Thurstaston
are later.
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