The Bells of St Michael the Archangel, Kirkby Malham

St Michael the Archangel has a ring of eight bells (having been rehung and augmented from the previous set of three bells in 2002).

Kirkby Malham Bells; click on image for larger view
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Ringing

The bells are rung on Sundays (9.15am-10am) for morning service
at 10am.

Practice night is on a Tuesday evening. The tower has a simulator using Abel
which is used at practices. On the second Sunday of the month, there is often
a quarter peal attempt in the evening.

The bells are also rung for weddings and funerals, by arrangement.

Visitors and new ringers are always welcome. Please make contact to check times
if visiting.

One of the tower’s ringers featured in an article about ringing at Kirkby Malham
in ‘Connection’ which is the magazine for Barclays Bank pensioners. An extract
from the magazine with the article (cover page and one-page article) is available
here
as a PDF provided thanks to and with permission of Barclays.

Contacts

The Tower Captain is George Parker who can be contacted on:

• Phone: 01729 825597
• Post: 11 Sandholme Close, Giggleswick, Settle, BD24 0AF
• E-mail: BobMinor@aol.com

Directions

Kirkby Malham is in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales: see http://www.streetmap.co.uk/
for a map. The Grid Ref for the Church is SD 8939 6096. The nearest train stations
are Settle (7 miles away) and Skipton (10 miles away): see http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/.
Skipton station may be better for bus connections. For enquiries regarding local
transport, see:

• Web: Yorkshire Travel.Net http://www.yorkshiretravel.net/
• E-mail: passenger.transport@northyorks.gov.uk
• Phone: 0870 608 2608
• Post: Passenger Transport Group, North Yorkshire County Council, County
  Hall, Northallerton DL7 8AH

On entering the village from most directions, the Church is easily visible.
The road to the Church is up the lane at the corner of the Victoria pub. Parking
for the church is available along this same lane. The bells were a ground-floor
ring inside the church and access is via the main church door; the church has
disabled access. In 2009, a raised floor was put in for the ringing room, and
access is via a short narrow spiral staircase. The steps on the staircase have
been lined with wood.

Bells

The bells were originally a set of three. The three bells were rehung and augmented
to eight during 2002 by Eayre and Smith, now part of Taylors Eayre & Smith
(http://www.taylorbells.co.uk/)
following a successful appeal and fund-raising by bell-ringers, congregation
and community raising £60,000 to finance the work. The new set of eight
bells was first rung on 19 July 2002. They were dedicated on 6 October 2002
by the Archbishop of York. The original three bells are included in the new
ring of eight as bells 6, 7 & 8. The tower dates from 1495.

The three original bells retain their canons and are fitted with specially
designed canon-retaining headstocks of spheroidal graphite cast iron. The other
five bells are fitted with web section headstocks of the same material. All
eight bells rotate on self-aligning ball bearings. The strike note of the tenor
is 33 cents (33 hundredths of a semitone) sharp of E natural.

The bell-frame is of fabricated steel, hot-dip galvanized against corrosion.
Previous to the work in 2002, the frame was of wooden construction by Mallerby
of Masham and was 150 years old. The new frame was made by Bentleys of Silsden.

Information kindly provided by Eayre & Smith, now part of Taylors Eayre
& Smith (http://www.taylorbells.co.uk/).
100 cents = 1 semitone so 33 cents is 33% of a semitone

The tower clock is by Potts of Leeds and dated 1881. It is a flatbed design
with a gravity escapement.

Points of interest

There are several points of interest relating to the bells beyond the bells
themselves:

• the bells are referred to in “The Water Babies” (1863): The oldest
  bell has its place in literary history as Charles Kinglsey, who wrote The
  Water Babies while staying at Tarn House, Malham, mentions its sonorous tone
  in his famous book: “Under the crag where the ouzel sings, And the ivied
  wall where the church-bell rings”
• The Virgin’s Chime: For the midnight chime of Christmas Eve: “Ascending
  to the bell-chamber, the ringers on this occasion manipulate the tongues of
  the bells with their hands. The strokes follow a prescribed order – two strokes
  on the small bell, one on the middle bell, two on the great bell and, again,
  one on the middle bell. The order is repeated until the first note of midnight
  and is resumed for a few minutes after the hour has struck. If, as seems probable,
  the chime had its origin in pre-reformation days, it may perhaps be inferred
  that the tower possessed bells from the time of its erection”. (Source:
  The Parish of Kirkby Malhamdale, J W Morkhill, Pub.1933). From the late 1980’s,
  when the custom was restarted, after decades of silence in the tower, the
  “ringers” sat on the floor and clasped the flight of the clapper
  with both hands. They then pulled the clappers towards them in the order given
  above. Since augmentation they stand under the bells to ring the Virgin’s
  Chimes and still ring the old trio of bells (6th, 7th, and 8th of the new
  eight).
• Two of the bells are “listed”: Bell 6: Cast by William Oldfield,
  Doncaster 1617 and Bell 8: Cast by William Oldfield (elder) 1602
• In 1992 (before the bells were augmented and rehung and the new frame installed
  in 2002), during one Sunday’s service ringing, one of the original three bells
  fell from its frame, but fortunately no further.
• The Malhamdale Meander, an annual 26-mile sponsored walk, was started in
  1990 by the bellringers to raise funds for the bells. See http://www.malhamdale.com/meander/
  for more information. The Meander has raisd approximately £600-£1,000
  each year.

Peals and Quarter Peals

Details of Peals and Quarter Peals may be found at http://www.campanophile.co.uk/.

Photos

Kirkby Malham Bells: new bells lined up in preparation for lifting into the tower July 2002

click on image for larger view
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Bellringers’ Flower Arrangement from 2009 Flower Festival

Going up in the world: the raised Ringing Room (Dec 2009)

Recording

A professional recording was made on 21 February 2006 of the bells being rung.

A CD of the recording is being sold in aid of the project to create an upstairs
ringing room. With over 56 minutes of ringing, the CD contains performances
by a guest YACR
Western Branch team who perform a 23 minute touch of Grandsire Triples and a
course of Yorkshire, and it also includes ringing by the local band.

A 90 second sample of one of the tracks (Grandsire Triples) from the recording
is available here (1.3Mb WMA
file). If you would like to buy a copy of the full CD, it is available by post:

• Cost: £7.50 per copy (add £1.50 for UK packing & postage;
  international postage on request)
• Cheque payable to ‘Kirkby Malham Bell Ringers’
• Sent to: Malcolm Bland, Airton Cottage, Airton, SKIPTON, North Yorkshire
  BD23 4AE
• E-mail enquiries to: BellsatKM@aol.com

The CD was recorded and produced by Charlie S Brown: web: http://www.soundman.org.uk.

Recordings are © Kirkby Malham Bell Fund 2006.

Links

The following small selection of links may be useful (links to external websites
will open in a new browser window):

• Malhamdale website http://www.malhamdale.com/
• Yorkshire Association of Change Ringers (YACR)
  http://www.yacr.org.uk/

• Yorkshire Association of Change Ringers (YACR)
  Western Branch http://www.yacrwestern.org.uk/
• Central Council of Church Bell Ringers (CCCBR)
  http://www.cccbr.org.uk
• Change Ringing Resources http://www.ringing.info/
• Kirkby Malham on Dove’s Guide

If you are looking for self-catering holiday accommodation, one of the tower’s
ringers has a luxury apartment sleeping two people in a converted mill within
walking distance of the church. Please visit: Mill Top Holiday Accommodation.

© Kirkby Malham Bells 2004; last updated 2010