[Bell Historians] Re: Kirkoswald, Cumbria

[George Dawson]

> There appears to have been at Kirkoswald, during the first quarter of
> the 18th century, a foundry for the casting of church bells. It was
> carried on by one Aaron Peever, whose name occurs thus on the tenor
> bell in the church:-
>
> + AARON + PEEVER + KIRKOSWALD + FA + IOHN + RUMNEY + VICK + 1729; the
> treble bell has evidently been cast by him also. Another bell of much
> older date is inscribed thus:- WILLIAM LAND MADE ME 1619 W.B.
>
> On the lip of the bell are three old silver coins, much worn, which
> have clearly been put in the mould before casting. Kirkoswald was,
> from its position on the borders of the Debatable Land, liable to the
> unwelcome visits of the marauding Scots; and, accordingly, we find
> from the Chronicle of Lanercost, that the town was burned by Bruce,
> in 1314. In 1597 and 1598, it was visited by the plague, which
> traversed the north of England, and made its way from Newcastle to
> Kirkoswald and Penrith, and thence to Appleby and Kendal. We read
> that in the first year of the visitation forty-two persons died, and
> in the year following no less than 583, a mortality which must have
> almost depopulated the parish. Only fifty-one deaths are recorded in
> the church register.
>
>
> The implication is therefore that there are 3 bells, but I no not
> what there "ringability" is.

The amusing thing about this lot is that the tenor was recast by Taylors in
1893!
1. 19.75" 1.2.16
2. 22.5" 2.1.9
3. 24" 3.3.9
Old 3. 24" 2.3.16

GAD