Bell Ringers
The Cathedral’s 13 bells, largest in Wales
What Is Bell Ringing?
Why Learn to Ring?
Bell-ringing at St Woolos is a tradition which goes back nearly 250 years. It has brought pleasure and solace to generations of people who are ringers or hear the sound of the bells from our church.
Learning to ring is the start of a life-long learning adventure – you’ll become part of a community that stretches all over the world. Ringers from St Woolos have been made welcome at towers as far away as Australia and New Zealand.
Ringing combines physical and mental skill, working as part of a team. You don’t have to be particularly strong as the bell does most of the work, and you only have to be fit enough to climb the 46 steps to the ringing room.
It takes about 20 hours to learn to “handle” a bell to the stage that you can join us for ringing on Sundays and Tuesdays. As with any skill, the more practice you put in, the quicker you will learn. Once you can handle a bell you can join ringers at other local towers and ring every night of the week if you want to!
Join the Bell Ringers!
There is a dedicated team of regular Sunday ringers. There is regular practice on Tuesday evenings from 7.15 to 9.00 p.m. People interested in visiting the tower to see the band ringing or interested in learning to ring are always welcome. Please contact the Cathedral Administrator.
The history of the present bells started in 1913, when a new ring of 10 bells was installed in the tower by Taylors of Loughborough. In 1939, two trebles were added and the smallest three bells were recast by Gillett and Johnson of Croydon to create the first ring of 12 bells in Wales. The semi-tone bell was add by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry of London in 1989, and these 13 bells remain the largest in Wales.