Celebrations mark cathedral bells anniversary

The eight bronze bells at St Marie's Cathedral can ring 40,320 unique patterns

Celebrations are due to be held later to mark 150 years since the bells at a city cathedral were first rung.

The eight bronze bells at St Marie’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Sheffield first rang out for Mass on 23 August 1874.

To mark the anniversary on Friday, a band of bell-ringers both past and present will attempt to recreate that event.

Bob Rae, Tower Captain at St Marie's, said: “We're really overjoyed. In the three hours, each bell will ring over 5,000 times.”

St Marie's Cathedral in Sheffeld was first opened on 11 September 1850

Installed at the cathedral in 1862, the cathedral's original steel bells were made by Naylor’s - a predecessor of Sheffield Forgemasters.

However, the congregation of St Marie’s then decided bronze bells would sound sweeter and raised money for the replacements to be installed in August 1874.

The bells continued to be rung until falling silent between August 1933 and January 1935 as concerns were raised about the condition of the wooden supporting frame, which was later replaced with an iron one.

The bells at St Marie’s range in weight from just over 325kg to 1.3 tonnes, with diameters going from 79cm to 1.3m.

Members of the St Marie’s and the Sheffield Universities bands were in the ringing chamber for King Charles’ coronation

In 1874, the eight bells cost a total of £1,120 - about £158,720 in today’s money.

They can be used to ring a total of 40,320 unique patterns - a process that would take about 22 hours and 30 minutes to complete.

The first ever peal of the cathedral's bronze bells in 1874 lasted about three and a half hours.

Mr Rae said that these days people of all ages and backgrounds took part in ringing the cathedral's bells.

"We've had people as young as 12 to people in their 70s-plus ringing," he said.

Following Friday's event, the celebrations are expected to continue on Saturday, when members of the St Marie’s band, members of the Sheffield Universities Guild of Change Ringers and ringers from other churches will ring the cathedral's bells.

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