The Church of England invests its bell interests in Dove’s Guide
Friday 5 February 2021
An agreement has been reached between the Church Buildings Council (CBC) of the Church of England (CofE), and Dove’s Guide, concerning the future collection and maintenance of data on bells and bellframes in their jurisdiction. The CBC has an interest in church fixtures and fittings to underpin their advice to parishes, cathedrals, chancellors and advisory bodies. To this end they established the Church Heritage Record (CHR) database, part of which involved the recording of details of bells and frames. In addition to the information on full circle rings, Dove’s Guide has also been collecting information on other bells in the UK. Rather than have these two groups building and maintaining registers with the same information, the CBC has agreed to share its data to allow Dove to move forward with the new Dove Bell Register. In return Dove will work to maintain the quality of this information and extend the record to cover the rest of the CofE. We’ll do that using the valuable contributions from the ringing community, reviewed and managed by the Dove Team, that has led to Dove becoming the quality resource that it is. The CBC will be able to use the Dove Bell Register as part of its Church Heritage Record to use the information to support its valuble work in the CofE and society. In terms of approximate numbers, the CHR has data on 54k bells in 14k churches while Dove has 39k bells in 6k churches. The CHR has data on 675 bellframes in 673 churches, while Dove has 7k frames in 6k churches. The data in the CHR originates from the extensive collection of information by George Dawson, which itself has benefitted from submissions by a wider number of people, either directly or via Dove. The establishment of the Dove Bell Register therefore owes much to the careful interest and time given by all these people, as will its continued maintenance.