Monday, April 25, 2011

Bells on Monday #bellsonsunday

Gloucester Cathedral

One of the bizarre and eclectic joys of the Radio 4 schedule is the weekly Bells on Sunday featuring church bells ringing from

Two minutes of Grandsire Triples and Bristol Surprise Maximus, village greens, and ever so complicated technical introductions by continuity announcers.

I can't ever remember hearing any BoS from Northern Ireland ... in fact, other than Hillsborough Parish (and Garnerville Presbyterian who have a speaker rather than bells in their tower) I've rarely heard the sound of bells locally.

Listen!

Walking through Gloucester city centre at lunchtime, we heard the bells of Gloucester Cathedral clearly ringing out. They were going a good hour or so. Surprisingly, take a couple of steps inside the cathedral and the sound of the bells disappears entirely.

Bells on Monday ... sounds like the perfect name for a spin-off show on Radio 4 Extra!

3 comments:

Li said...

I found and bought a CD Church Bells of England which I love to listen too. I am fortunate to live in one of the small towns in the US which still has a church that rings bells. (Many play automated recordings instead...there was one near my parents' house growing up and the tape got stuck...hilarious.Of course, that was some time ago.)

Andy Boal said...

St Thomas's in Eglantine Avenue has real live bells, which are rung every Sunday morning. I'm sure there are other peals regularly rung in Belfast, but the locations temporarily escape me.

Anonymous said...

Church House?