Great George will ring out

AS the nation marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War, Bristol’s largest bell, housed in the tower of the University of Bristol’s Wills Memorial Building, will ring out in celebration for peace across the city this Sunday.

Great George will join many other cathedral and church bells across the county to remember the significant moment when the First World War ended in Europe in 1918.

Over 1,400 members of the bell ringing community lost their lives in the First World War. This bell ringing forms part of a national campaign called ‘Ringing Remembers’ and Great George will ring for 15 minutes at 7pm.

The sound of the bell is a familiar one across Bristol, telling the time for people during the day as the bell is struck automatically by its clock hammer. But the sound this Sunday will be much richer and louder because the 9.5-tonne Great George will be rung by a team of bell ringers who swing the bell using its rope and mounted wheel to produce a louder and richer sound than when the clock hammer usually chimes.

Such ringing is saved for special occasions such as the Queen’s Jubilee, the 70th anniversary of VE Day and the University’s Royal Charter.

Great George, the country’s seventh largest bell, will be rung by the University of Bristol Society of Change Ringers (UBSCR), led by Matthew Tosh, one of the Society’s alumni members.

Matthew Tosh said: “Ringing Remembers is the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers’ campaign to get 1,400 people ringing church bells on the centenary of the Armistice, the number of bell ringers lost in the Great War.

“Bells were silent during the First World War but were used to ring out in celebration of peace at the end of the conflict.

“As a member of the UBSCR it is a fitting tribute to ring Great George to celebrate peace and honour the bell ringers known to have been killed.”