Schedule of bells worthy of preservation in the Oxford Diocese

The late H.B.Walters, M.A. F.S.A originally compiled a schedule in the 1930s for the then Central Council for the Care of Churches. Its aim was to include all bells cast before 1550 and a selection of the more ‘important’ post-Reformation bells. ‘Important’ means rarity rather than necessarily quality of tone.

This list was extracted from one supplied by George Dawson, last updated September 2004. We are grateful for permission to include it on this CD. Note: We do not know the rules for inclusion in this list, which seem arbitrary: for example Childrey has 3 bells all cast by Ellis Knight I at about the same time, so why is only one listed?

The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers is currently (February 2006) discussing with English Heritage and other interested bodies the criteria for a bell to be included in such a list in future.

The table below lists data as supplied by George Dawson, with the addition of extra columns which have been added from the data elsewhere on this CD: they are the OS Grid Ref of the tower and jurisdiction of the tower. (Click on any linked word in the table heading to find out the meaning of the Contents in this column.) A blank field means that information for that field is not known. A link is given on the parish name to towers which have further details on this CD; that is where the bells are part of a ring of 3 or more bells hung for full-circle ringing, otherwise there is just an OS. Grid Ref.

This table has 555 bells listed in 361 towers in the Oxford Diocese.

Note that the bell details in the list are those supplied by George Dawson; they may differ from those obtained by clicking on the parish name where the data from restorations may be included.