Dove extended to include Church of England church bells not hung for full-circle ringing
Tuesday 23 November 2021
In February we announced an agreement reached between the Church Buildings Council (CBC) of the Church of England, and the Central Council, concerning the future collection and maintenance of data on bells and bellframes in its jurisdiction. Following months of considerable effort to bring together data on all known CofE places with bells, coupled with further development to accommodate these data, we have now released access to the wider Dove Bell Register to the public. The default searches still focus on full-circle rings, but it is now possible to widen this to CofE chimes, tubular chimes, hemispherical chimes and clock chimes. The number of bell collections has increased from 7,163 to 16,761, and the number of bells from 47,399 to 61,560. The new coverage statistics may be viewed here. There is no pretence that these details are all complete or fully accurate, but rather that this is just the first stage to refine and improve the DBR’s accuracy now that it is available for public viewing. Additions and amendments are as always gratefully received. For the first time we are showing collections of 1 and 2 bells hung for full-circle ringing. Please note that inclusion here does not imply that they are ringable, and given that they are likely to receive less attention than the higher number rings, appropriate caution should be taken if they are ever visited.
In further development, we have introduced the ability to search for rings of bells by the same founder, optionally cast within a specified number of years of each other, the ability to sort rings by the age of the newest or oldest bell, and a new summary page giving the output of a particular founder which can be viewed by clicking on their name.
