A guide to towers throughout the world with bells used for change ringing and other bells of interest.
First published in book form by Ronald H Dove in 1950, this is the online guide managed by the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, now extended to details of bells, frames, founders and projects. Find out more about Dove’s Guide…
The printed Dove’s Guide for Church Bell Ringers is on sale.
Grateful thanks are given to those who contribute additions or revisions. This includes bellringers, researchers and the bellfounding and bellhanging industry. Your support is vital to maintain the quality of this resource.
Updates can be submitted from the individual tower pages, or by email to the Dove Team. Please see our help pages for further information.
6 Feb: The Revd David L Cawley
We are sorry to report the passing of the Revd David L Cawley of Canterbury who died in the morning of 6 February, aged 79, following a battle with cancer. David was a well known authoritative bell historian who for decades was a member of the Bells Committee of (what is now) the Church Buildings Council, a consultant to various dioceses, and the driving force behind many bell restoration and conservation projects. Over the years he has helped in the compilation of many of the lists in the printed editions of Dove and he wrote a number of the articles. He has been a key source of guidance throughout that time and a particular friend to those in the current and wider Dove Teams. He will be truly missed.
26 Nov: Welcoming Kye Leaver to the Dove Team
We are pleased to announce that KYE LEAVER has joined the Dove Team as a Dove Clerk. Kye, already a keen researcher for Dove, is from Sussex and is currently studying horology at college. He is already making good progress in processing entries in our backlog of frames updates as the more observant will notice from recent updates.
29 Sep: Bell hanging types, tubular bell lengths, menu of truss and layout types
Dove now displays how individual bells are hung. This is found in the bells table for each tower where this information is known. The abbreviations are FC (full-circle in the style used for English change ringing), S (swing chiming), D (hung dead unable to swing), U (not hung).
For tubular chimes, we now also show the length of each tube, where known.
Finally, we have set up pages to allow the reader to browse truss types and layout types, although we still recommend that reference is made to Chris Pickford’s book Bellframes, A practical guide to inspection and recording when contributing updates.