Bell Ringing at Liverpool Cathedral, Merseyside

Firstly, I would like to thank irkibby for allowing me to use the audio of his video of the tenor bell ringing solo. Thanks again!
After the fantastic news of the Oxford D G Youth Team winning the whole RWNYC, I made made my way over with some team members and our chauffeur Jenny to the open ringing slot at Liverpool’s enormous Anglican Cathedral! As we drove through the streets of Liverpool, we could see the top of the Cathedral’s 101-meter-tall tower gracing the Liverpudlian skyline. It was a sight to behold once we rounded the corner onto Cathedral Gate! What made it even better was that the bells were ringing and echoing throughout the streets on the approach. What a haunting sound…
The Cathedral was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott (whose grandfather George Gilbert Scott was a pioneering Victorian Gothic Revival architect) and was begun in 1904, when Scott was only 22 years old! It was finished in 1978, but in 1939 the peal of twelve bells (82-0-11cwt tenor bell!!) plus the semitone bell having been cast by Mears and Stainbank of Whitechapel, London, with the great (albeit non swinging) bourdon bell “Great George” cast in 1940 by John Taylor and Co. of Loughborough. These bells are the highest and heaviest set of change ringing bells in the world.
Upon entering the Cathedral at the transept, I was told that everyone (bar those with mobility issues) would have to climb the tower via the stairs. All 500 odd of them!! So up I went… and up and up and up. By the time I got to the roof level I was absolutely knackered (having only had three hours of sleep thanks to some very loud and incessant Liverpudlian seagulls clamouring all night long right outside my bedroom window…) but I still went for it and got to the ringing chamber. Just as I’d expected, the bells were incredible, but inaudible in the ringing chamber. Though this may have been due to the buzz of background chatter from the throng of people in there. Once tuned into the ringing, the bells were actually quite easy to pick out. I rang the 34cwt 9th bell and the 82cwt tenor bell, the latter being an enormous personal goal finally achieved! Having had a good ring, I went back down to the transept roof to listen to a touch of Grandsire Cinques. The sound from outside trumped the inside sound enormously.

[@ATEC9084]

That a°-tenor at the beginning! Amazing!

[@Glockenklang]

Ein gigantischens GLOCKENMEER!

[@fredmills368]

Love the start drawings!

[@leebrennan1554]

I have been to both cathedrals I've been inside this one but not the other one I haven't seen the bells in this cathedral

[@Sorrydayaustralian]

Bruh from ringing bell and fire

[@theobellringer6211]

You can see the smoke from that car fire in the background

[@RingerJake]

Nah, it was a wasteland fire. Have a look at the Liverpool Echo report about it.

[@theobellringer6211]

Oh ok

[@Steven_Rowe]

Jake Whilst they are a drawcard for many sadly they are dissapointingfor a few reasons. I think they are way to heavy which is probably the draw card for going. Trying to handle 82cwt is I think excessive for most people but that is simply my opinion. It would not matter what bells were in Liverpool, even York Minster would sound terrible as the tower is an accoustic engineers nightmare. With a bucket load of money the accoustics could be solved. The belfry is way to big and so the sound waves bounce all over the place. I false ceiling over the bells and insulation I think would help Also the ringing room is like an abandoned Industrial factory. Money could fix the problems. I look at it this way, bells are to churches what strings are to a guitar. A well designed accoustic guitar sounds great. Liverpool pierhead sound great. I think the nest ringing on youtube was done there by the Birmingham band. Keep the vids coming

[@RingerJake]

The internal acoustics are truly god awful, I know. However they are doing something about it, having finally been given permission to do so. They were slightly better than I had been expecting but were still quite mushy. Though, two huge concrete floors and the steel frame foundations going through the chamber do account for a lot of the mushiness!

[@Steven_Rowe]

@@RingerJake I wonder what they are doing? Even from outside they sound awful amd its the tower that is the issue. The belfry is a massive waste of space. The church could get a telco to use the space for mobile communications . Im not an accoustic engineer the bells are so far from the walls and also the roof that sound bounces all over the place. They really need a false ceiling a d perhaps add some sound absorbing material around the empty space. Only joking but even old lounge chairs and furniture would help. Think how a room echoes until furniture is added. I would love to hear them properly. I cant help thinking that when Whitechapel made them it was an exercise in simply being heavier than Exeter. Frankly anything over around 2 tons is probably a waste. Who the heck wants to turn in a tenor of 82 cwt to a peal of maximus. Mind you York Worcester amd Redcliffe tenors are beautiful.

[@davros_adl8155]

@@Steven_Rowe Andrew Mills wants to turn in 82cwt to a peal of maximus and has lol

[@Steven_Rowe]

@Davros_ADL the very first peak of Surprise Max and th tenor was turned in my Peter Border a renewed heavy bell man, well the got the peal and he asked someone to take it from him as he simply couldn't set it.

[@Jackzilla2006]

What is your favourite bell in anglican cathedral

[@leebrennan1554]

The time bell for o clock

[@lukemeanwell3260]

you lucky bugger

[@leebrennan1554]

I would be a bell ringer to see if it's easy

[@Sorrydayaustralian]

Just hard that bell 100k tenor

[@daffyfromuk]

Decent bells. Wrong building