Campanology : The Art Of Bell Ringing – A Trip to St Mary’s Cathedral

I’ve heard the bells of St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney from the floor of the cathedral many times. Actually seeing how they work up close would be fascinating so when the opportunity presented itself in early November I couldn’t refuse. Indeed it was a learning experience that my preconceived ideas about bell pealing were totally wrong.

T and I arrived at the St Mary’s Cathedral on a Sunday afternoon ready to climb the stairs. We found ourselves following a guide up a very steep and narrow stairwell in a clockwise direction. 120 stairs in all within a very tight space! If you are considering the tour yourself be mindful that you need to be comfortable in confined spaces and fit enough for the climb up.

On reaching the pealing room we had spotted a bunch of ropes hanging down from the ceiling. Hmmm….interesting. More stairs and we made it into the bell tower. St Mary’s Cathedral Bell Tower hosts 14 bells in the key of C# major. The bells are actually quite young having been cast back in 1985 at Whitechapel in the UK. The largest bell, the tenor, is a whopping 1741 kg (or 34 cwt in the language of professional Bell Ringers).

Our visit was hosted by the Bell Master and members of the St Mary’s Basilica Society of Change Ringers – the oldest ringing society in Australia. They demonstrated pealing the rings and explained that change ringing is not about reading music but a complex set of mathematics. Fancy that! Named methods, the sequence that the ringers follow are memorised moving forward and backwards with none of the changes is repeated. The complete number of changes that can be rung on 7 bells is 5040 which can take over 3 hours to work through.

The Bells of St Mary’s Cathedral

Would you like to go and see the bells of St Mary’s Cathedral yourself? Bell Tower tours are free and held on the first Sunday of each month (except January) from 9.30-10.30am. Numbers are limited and bookings are essential via stmarysbells@gmail.com by the preceding Friday.