[Bell Historians] Oldest five and sixe

[Richard Smith]

Mike Chester via Bell-historians wrote:

> St Lawrence, Ipswich are the oldest set of 5 bells, not St 
> Clement's which are a ring of 6. They were complete by 
> c.1490.  St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield are the 
> oldest ring of 5 bells that were all cast at the same 
> time, c.1510.

We can't really be certain whether St Lawerence, Ipswich is 
older than St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield – there's 
too much uncertainty in the dates.  None of the bells at 
either tower is dated, and so far as I'm aware, there is no 
documentary evidence for the dates of any of them.

The Ipswich treble has the distinctive bell, keys and cannon 
shield used by the Bury St Edmunds foundry, unlike the back 
four.  However, although it's generally attributed to 
Reginald Church, the evidence for which of the Bury founders 
cast seems pretty tenuous and relies on a detailed analysis 
of the stops, marks and other ornamentation they used.  It 
also makes what seems to me a risk assumption that the 
changes in ornamentation coincide with the changes in 
founder.

This argument makes the Ipswich treble is the work of 
Reginald Church who died in 1498 (possibly an OS year), and 
the date c1490 given in Dove for no reason other than that 
this is a round-number year late in his life.  While I don't 
have any particular reason to question this attribution 
other than the general tenuousness of the argument, I would 
suggest we cannot rule out the possibility that it was the 
work of his son Thomas, who inherited the foundry and 
continued founding until his death in about 1527.  If so, 
the bell could be later than the quoted c1499.

The ring at Smithfied are all the work of Thomas Bullisdon 
and bear his distinctive shield consisting of a bell and the 
initials 'TB'.  They were presumably cast as a single job. 
Until recently, the only dates we had for Bullisdon was that 
he worked at St Mary at Hill between 1508 and 1511, and that 
Deedes and Walter say a bell at Weeley, Essex can be dated 
to about 1510 from the dedication to a William and Agnes 
Brooke.  For this reason, they're dated c1510.

However, it has more recently been disoverd that Bullisdon 
'a bell founder of Algate [sic], London' was the plaintiff 
in a lawsuit in 1495, so he was evidently active before the 
end of Reginald Church's life, perhaps even for many years. 
If the Ipswich treble was one of Reginald Church's last 
bells, or even one of his son's bells, and Smithfield were 
one of Bullisdon's earlier jobs, it's entirely possible that 
Smithfield is older than Ipswich.

If I had to guess, I would say that the conventional wisdom 
– that Ipswich are slightly older than Smithfield – is 
right, but there is a distinct possibility that it is not.

RAS