Final of the National Twelve-Bell Striking Competition at Lincoln Cathedral
 Saturday 28 June 2008

The Company of Ringers

The Companie of Ringers of the Blessed Virgin Marie of Lincoln was formed in 1612 to ring the bells in St Hugh's Steeple and is the oldest known company still performing the duties for which it was set up. Full size copies of the original Ordinances line the south wall of the Ringers' Chapel in the Cathedral and the originals can still be seen in the Lincoln County Archive.

Granted in 1614 to the use of the Cathedral Ringers by Letters Patent from the Dean and Chapter, the Chapel is believed to be the only one of its kind anywhere set aside for Ringers.

A continuous ringing connection with today's Company can be traced on its North and East walls where the names of many past Masters (and some Members) have been inscribed. However, the Chapel, formerly known as 'Pele Altar' has been connected with bell ringers from very early times.

Inevitably there are gaps in dates, the reasons for which can only be guessed at, but the Company has never been dissolved over the past three hundred and ninety-six years; a remarkable record through good times and bad.

The Ringing Chamber
The Chapel also houses memorials on the North wall to John Ashley Freeman, a long serving and well-respected Master of the Company and of the Lincoln Diocesan Guild; there is also a memorial to Rupert Richardson, a well-known Guild Master who led the 'Great Adventure' ringing trip to Australia before the second World War and in whose memory the semi tone sixth bell was included in the ringing peal in 1948.

Lincolnshire Ringers who gave their lives in the two World Wars are recorded on a stone memorial on the South wall of the Chapel. In the South-west lancet window are included two diamond shaped etched glass panes marking John Freeman's (son of John Ashley Freeman) times in office as Master of the Lincoln Diocesan Guild and his six years as President of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers.


The Ringers Chapel