Since I know @arcenciel-par-une-larme does bell-ringing and we both like British folklore, here's a post on church bell folklore.
Church bells are an apotropaic against faeries [1], storms and evil spirits [2], especially those trying to seize the souls of the dead [3], hence the custom of ringing bells on All Hallows' Eve to aid souls in Purgatory. In the town of Hickling in Nottinghamshire, the locals were so attached to this practice that in 1587 they assaulted a Reformation-minded parson who refused to do so [4]. In the Yorkshire town of Dewsbury, a church bell called Black Tom is rung on Christmas Eve specifically to ward off the Devil [5].
Due to the above, the Devil frequently attacked or attempted to steal church bells, with varying degrees of success, as he did at Egloshayle in Cornwall, Cranborne Chase in Dorset, Danbury in Essex, Newington in Kent, Halvergate in Norfolk [6], Shrewsbury in Gloucestershire [7] in England and Llanarth in Cardiganshire in Wales [8].
Faeries, however, were not so lucky, being expelled by church bells from South Cadbury [9] and Exmoor in Somerset [10] and Inkberrow in Worcestershire [11].
The other common folklore motif is lost church bells ringing from beneath the water. There are examples of this in Forrabury [12], Land's End [13], Penhale Sands [14] and Perranporth in Cornwall [15], Wimborne Minster in Dorset [16], the ruined town of Lepe in Hampshire [17], Kentchurch [18] and Marden in Herefordshire [19], Preston in Lancashire [20], Tunstall in Norfolk [21], Dunwich in Suffolk [22], Bosham in Sussex [23], Llangorse Lake in Breconshire [24], Llangadog in Carmarthenshire [25], Aberdovey in Monmouthshire [26] and St. David's in Pembrokeshire [27]. Interestingly, while (as you can see) there are lots of spirit-repellent church bells and ghostly church bells in southern England and south Wales, they have almost no presence in the Midlands or the North in England and don't appear at all in Scotland. Any ideas why?
According to the superstitions of nineteenth-century Buckinghamshire, if the tolling of a funeral bell coincides with a clock striking the hour, there'll be another death within the week [28].
At St. Ives in Cornwall, a man called Richard was returning home late with a load of fish when he heard the bell of Lelant Church toll and saw a light in the window. He looked inside, and saw it brightly lit with a crowd of little people carrying myrtle and rose wreaths, six of them carrying a bier containing a waxenly beautiful tiny body. They dug a grave for her next to the altar, and cried out “our queen is dead!” while throwing flowers in. When they began filling in the grave, a cry arose that Richard echoed. The lights went out, and they rushed past and stung him like bees [29].
According to Cornish superstition, if church bells chime sadly, someone is dying [30], and likewise in Sussex a heavy tone from a church bell is a death omen [31].
In the Devon village of Shebbear, a stone brought to act as the church’s foundation stone kept rolling away and appearing on the village green overnight. Eventually, they gave up and got a new stone. Since 1937, each year on the 5th November, bell-ringers ring an intentionally discordant sound while villagers flip the stone over with crowbars – if this did not happen, death and poverty will be released on the village [32].
At Langenhoe Church in Essex, a haunting involved, among other things, the church bell ringing by itself [33].
At Leamington in Oxfordshire, a bell at the bottom of a pool of water was used for divination by people dropping stones on it at night; one ring at dawn the next day was a yes, and two rings a no [34]. The same custom was the case for a church bell between Witnash and Radford in Warwickshire [35].
The Romani of the Cotswolds in the nineteenth century blamed winter storms on spirits called Snow Foresters, and said the Snow Foresters could be warded off with birdsong and church bells [36].
On the 1st July each year as the climax to the celebrations of their parishes being founded, the Somerset parishes of Landford Budville and Thorne St. Margaret both rang church bells to drive the Devil (in the form of a brown dog) back and forth between their respective parishes [37].
There are at church bells in the parish of Calne in Wiltshire, and when only seven ringers are available, a ghost appears to complete the set [38].
In Wiltshire, the verdigris of church bells was said to cure shingles if rubbed onto them [39].
In Yorkshire, Church Grims are spirits in the form of black dogs who guard churchyards from the Devil, materialise in storms and toll church bells at midnight before someone in the parish dies – during the funeral, the vicar sees the Grim climbing down, and its countenance provides evidence for the salvation or damnation of the soul [40]. They are death omens that appear in Sweden in the form of lambs and Denmark in the form of pigs, all derived from the custom of making a sacrifice at the foundation of a church to prevent a human soul having to ward off the Devil [41].
Janet Bord, 1997, Fairies: Real Encounters with the Little People, Michael O'Mara Books Ltd., p.12
Jeremy Harte, 2022, Cloven Country: The Devil and the English Landscape, Reaktion Books, pp.80-81
William Henderson, 1879, Notes on the folklore of the northern counties of England and the borders, Nichols and Sons, p.63
Ronald Hutton, 2002, The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain, Oxford University Press, pp.371-372
Marc Alexander, 2002, A Companion to the Folklore, Myths and Customs of Britain, Sutton Publishing Ltd, p.341
Katharine Briggs, 1976, A Dictionary of Fairies, Penguin Books Ltd., p.95
Leo Ruickbie, 2013, A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting, Robinson, p.135
Tony Deane and Tony Shaw, 1975, The Folklore of Cornwall, Batsford, p.83
Deane and Shaw 1975 pp.28-29
David Castleton, 2021, Church Curiosities: Strange Objects and Bizarre Legends, Shire Publications, p.13
Brice Stratford, New Forest Folklore, The History Press, p.145
Neil Philip, The Watkins Book of English Folktales, Watkins Media Ltd., pp.348-349
Colin Bord and Janet Bord, 1985, Sacred Waters: Holy Wells and Water Lore in Britain and Ireland, Granada Publishing Ltd., p.116
Alexander 2002 pp.296-297
Jo Bourne, et al. 2009, The Most Amazing Haunted & Mysterious Places in Britain, Reader’s Digest Association Ltd, p.126
Dee Dee Chainey, A Treasury of British Folklore: Maypoles, Mandrakes and Mistletoe, National Trust Books, p.145
Roy Palmer, 1976, The Folklore of Warwickshire, Batsford, p.39
Katharine Briggs, 1974, The Folklore of the Cotswolds, Batsford, p.83
Theo Brown, 1958, "The Black Dog”, Folklore, volume 69, number 3, pp.175-192
Ralph Whitlock, 1976, The Folklore of Wiltshire, Batsford, p.122
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