The Cathedral has 10 bells, but the sixth bell is the oldest and sounds every quarter of an hour and has done since it was cast in 1350. The bell can be dated as it is inscribed ‘STEPHANVS BANASTRE ME FECIT’,Stephen Banastre made me. He is known to have been a founder of bells during this period even though no other bells made by him have survived.

The bell has a delicate rope pattern cast around the outer surface of the cannon, the part that the bell is hung from, and has had its lip cut to sharpen the note it produces.  We think this was done in 1697 when it was hung with the other nine bells in the central tower. We understand prior to this it was in the west tower which collapsed on Easter Monday in 1796.

You can find a mention of the bell in the newly restored Cathedral Close. We have installed a time line of the Cathedral’s history so next time you walk through do take time to see if you can find it engraved in the kerb stones that run along the path way around the Cathedral building.
 
 You can also get a birds eye view of the bells using our 360 degree tour, which you can find at the top left of our homepage.