[Bell Historians] Oldest set of six?

[Richard Smith]

On Fri 19 Jul 2024 11:02, John Harrison wrote:
> I am giving a talk in Harwell later this year and have been told by my
> host that: 'Harwell does have the oldest set of 6 bells in the country'.
> 
> That seemed an odd thing to say since Harwell is an 8 to I looked it up on
> Dove.  The back six are indeed old, being cast by two founders on several
> dates between 1590 and 1612.
> 
> Since they were not cast as a ring of six, and are not currently a six, I
> assume that 'the oldest set of 6 bells' means 'no other tower has at least
> 6 bells from 1612 or earlier'.  That's not a query that Dove can perform
> so can anyone verify or refute it?

The Dove website does not allow you to answer precisely the question 
you've asked: which tower has the six oldest bells.  However, I would 
suggest that it is not the fact that Harwell has six old bells that 
makes them special, but rather that it is the back six bells, so you can 
still go and ring minor on the old six.

You can use the Dove website to answer the question which is the oldest 
six, if back sixes are included.  Go to the tower list page:

   https://dove.cccbr.org.uk/dove

In the number of bells selector, choose '6+'.  In the 'sort by' 
selector, choose 'Newest bell'.  This will cause a new selector titled 
'Inc. back ns' to be displayed.  Go to to that, and choose 'Yes', which 
will mean you are ordering by the newest bell in the back six, rather 
than in the full ring.

Press the 'Go' button to run the search.  This will take you to the 
following page:

 
https://dove.cccbr.org.uk/dove?bells=6%2B&include_back_ns=1&order=newest_bell

This list will confirm that Harwell are the oldest back six, based on 
the age of the newest bell in the back six (1612).   The second and 
third oldest are also in the Oxford Diocese: at Hurst (1642) and 
Dorchester (1651).

I wrote about this in my Christmas 2021 article for the Ringing World:

   https://bb.ringingworld.co.uk/issues/2021/1144

See the second paragraph on p.1148 in particular

RAS