Kildwick’s bells
The bells at St Andrew’s were cast by Taylor’s during one of their halcyon days – in 1914.
They are a 15cwt ring of eight, hung on a standard Taylor’s low-sided cast iron frame with Hastings stays. The inscriptions on the middle six include facsimiles of those on the previous six bells, cast in 1780.
| No. | Weight | Frequency | Note | Diameter |
| 1 | 3-2-0 | 1416.0 | F | 25.00″ |
| 2 | 3-3-23 | 1335.0 | E | 26.00″ |
| 3 | 4-1-23 | 1189.0 | D | 28.00″ |
| 4 | 5-1-13 | 1062.0 | C | 30.38″ |
| 5 | 6-3-22 | 944.0 | Bb | 33.38″ |
| 6 | 8-1-9 | 890.0 | A | 35.25″ |
| 7 | 10-2-1 | 794.0 | G | 38.88″ |
| 8 | 15-1-18 | 708.0 | F | 44.13″ |
The bells are magnificent. It is a shame that the same cannot be said for the ringing chamber! This is (currently, at least) on the ground floor and, with a poorly-fitting West door combined with a ceiling some 30ft high make it impossible to heat adequately in winter. It is, however, pleasant on a balmy summer’s day to ring with the door wide open and welcoming to the many passers-by.
There are significant discussions about the future development of the whole church building. Till they are a good deal further advanced, thoughts of redecoration are somewhat premature.
We are one of the few (6 at the last count) towers to use a full set of Yorkshire tail-ends. These are like a short and thin extra sallie at the tail end, rather than the more usual looped-back rope. We are proud of our tail ends! We keep them for historical reasons despite the extra cost and the need for a large stock of boxes for different-shaped ringers but we find that they are no harder to ring with than standard tail ends! Do come and try them out!