Twelve bellringers ring the bells for eight hours to mark their 100th anniversary and raise money for Restore York.
York Minster is hosting a proper endurance test on Saturday 10 October: twelve bellringers taking on the bells for eight hours straight. The whole thing is being staged by the Society of Royal Cumberland Youths, one of the oldest and most prestigious bellringing societies in the world, and the proceeds go to Restore York, a local charity that supports people experiencing homelessness.
There's a specific reason for the date. The challenge marks the centenary of the Minster's current ring of twelve bells, which were cast by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough and installed in 1926 to replace a ring destroyed in the fire of 1840. They're a heavy set — the tenor is 59 cwt in B flat, making them the fourth heaviest ring of twelve in the world and the second deepest-toned after Liverpool Cathedral. The old wooden frame was eventually replaced by a cast-iron and steel one, so these are the same bells that have been ringing over the city for a century.
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Reverend Canon Maggie McClean, Acting Dean of York, described it as an ambitious and memorable way to celebrate a hundred years of the bells and the ringing community's contribution to the city's soundscape. You won't even need to be inside the Minster to hear it; the bells will be audible throughout the day from outside the building and across central York, so if you're out and about on the Saturday, you'll likely hear them working through the hours. It's a long shift for the twelve ringers involved, and the money they raise goes to Restore York.
