Bells on Sunday

You've got to love the sound of Church Bells. I know the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) didn't approve  but there's something so English, so evocative about a Sunday morning peal. BBC Radio Four may have callously discarded the UK Theme from its broadcasts some years ago but if you're awake early enough (on either Sunday or Monday mornings) you can hear a recording of church bells in all their clanging glory.



Housman not only mentions them in his poetry, but mentions these very bells, the bells we heard while on holiday in the forgotten gem of English counties, Shropshire. In 'The Recruit;, he writes:



Leave your home behind, lad,

And reach your friends your hand,

And go, and luck go with you

While Ludlow tower shall stand.


Oh, come you home of Sunday

When Ludlow streets are still

And Ludlow bells are calling

To farm and lane and mill,





And here they are. The ring of ten bells is considered to be among the finest in the country, and are of considerable historical interest. Six were cast in 1792 by Abraham Rudhall of Gloucester with the tenor weighing in at 17cwt. They are tuned to Fifth Comma Meantone Temprement and are in the key of E. So now you know...