CURFEW BELLS TO RING AGAIN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 30 November 1933, Page 10

CURFEW BELLS TO RING AGAIN

Qne of the most ancient of all custopis, the ringing of the! curfew, still persists in many parts of. Britain. Every 18th September it is custom-ary-for the inhabitants of Melton 'Mowbray, in Leicestershire, to celebrate the resumption of ringing bv -itho' ..town’s curfew-bell. Again at Michaelmas, the bell of: the Chettsey (Surrey). Church begins ringing; the qurfew., continuing Until March.' * This is the church of the poOm, j’/Qurfcw shall not ring, to-night.” Tfie curfew can still be, heard in several-plates' in the heart of London. Every evening 50 strokes sound out from Lincoln’s Inn,' and 100 from the equally, venerable foundation of Gray’s 1fm..l The Bell Tower of the Tower of London .and Charterhouse also have curfew hells.

In some places the curfew hell is said (o have been ringing in nearly unbroken succession since the custom was strictly enforced by William the Conqueror. The curfew is known to have been 'ringing at Ilail.sham, Sussex, ever sinco tbo thirteenth century. One of the church* bolls has been in use since 1198.

The curfew Still rung at York is said to have been the means of saving a traveller (being lost in the then wolf-in-fested forest of Galtcs during the'Middle Ages. lie left money so that the bell might warn other travellers. Curfew hells were' frequently endowed by travellers who had bean guided’to safety. At. Newark (Lincolnshire) the curfew rings in autumn'in accordance with tho bequest of a traveller once lost in Sherwood; Forest, .and, at Wokingham, in Berkshire; the bell-rings-out for a similar reason. 1