[Bell Historians] Very old bells

[Richard Smith]

Chris Pickford wrote:

> A couple of Ringng World articles are also worth a look [...]

Many thanks for those, Chris, especially the article re 
Hanford, Dorset -- a bell I had unaccountably overlooked. 
(It was on my original list of potentially interesting 
bells, but seemed to get lost at some point.)

Whilst on the subject of old bells, I notice that your 
spreadsheet of great bells of Britain includes a 56-0-8 bell 
cast in 1346 for Ely Cathedral.  Do you have a source for 
this weight?  Raven's Cambridshire [p.4-8] includes an 
account of the bells cast in 1346, but Raven reckons the 
largest to have been 37-2-24, though he accepts the 
original record is rather cryptic.  Morris's History and Art 
[p.24-5] repeats Raven's weighs without further comment.  I 
assume someone has done some more recent research, but I 
would be interested to know more about it.

RAS