Rudhall of Gloucester was a family business of bell founders in the city of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east o ...

, England, who between 1684 and 1835 cast more than 5,000 bells.

History

There had been a tradition of bell casting in Gloucester since before the 14th century. The family business was founded by Abraham Rudhall (1657–1736) who developed a method of tuning bells by

turning Turning is a machining process in which a cutting tool, typically a non-rotary tool bit, describes a helix toolpath by moving more or less linearly while the workpiece rotates. Usually the term "turning" is reserved for the generation ...

on a

lathe A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece ...

rather than the traditional ''chipping'' method with a chisel. One of the earliest

ring of bells A "ring of bells" is the name bell ringers give to a set of bells hung for English full circle ringing. The term "peal of bells" is often used, though peal also refers to a change ringing performance of more than about 5,000 changes. By ri ...

he cast was for St Nicholas' Church, Oddington in 1684. He came to be described as the greatest bell-founder of his age. The business was continued by his eldest son, also called Abraham (1680–1735), his son Abel (1714–60), and three of Abel's sons, Thomas (?1740–83), Charles (1746–1815) and John (1760–1835). In 1815 John Rudhall was declared bankrupt and the bell foundry bought by Mears & Stainbank who owned the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells ...

. The business formally closed in 1828 but bells bearing John's name have been found with dates up to 1835. ()

Selected bells

Five bells cast in 1702 by Abraham Rudhall I hang in St James the Great, West Hanney, Oxfordshire. A sixth was recast in 1856. In 1706 and 1707 Abraham Rudhall I cast three of the bells of

Great Malvern Priory Great Malvern Priory in Malvern, Worcestershire, England, was a Benedictine monastery (c. 1075 – 1540) and is now an Anglican parish church. In 1949 it was designated a Grade I listed building. It is a dominant building in the Great Malvern ...

. In 1710 Abraham Rudhall I cast six bells for SS Michael and Wulfhad's church in Stone, Staffordshire. In 2012 the four heaviest bells, including the tenor, were re-hung in the church but the other two were replaced by new bells cast by the

. The two redundant bells were moved to St Michael's Tower, Gloucester, near to where they were cast. Three of the bells of St Mary Magdalene,

Adlestrop Adlestrop () is a village and civil parish in the Cotswolds, east of Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, England, on the county boundary with Oxfordshire. The River Evenlode forms the southwest boundary of the parish. The village is on a str ...

were cast by Abraham Rudhall I in 1711. Six of the bells in the Church of St Leonard, Middleton,

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

were cast by Abraham Rudhall I in 1714. Five of the bells of St Michael and All Angels, Great Torrington were cast by Abraham Rudhal I in 1716. Six of the bells in Pershore Abbey were cast in 1729 by Abraham Rudhall II: a seventh (also 1727) was recast in 1897. Six bells by Abel Rudhall (cast in 1738 and 1753) hang in

Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Christ Church Cathedral, more formally The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, is the cathedral of the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and the cathedral of the ecclesiastical province of the United Provinces of Dublin and Cashel in the ( ...

. Eight

change ringing Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a tightly controlled manner to produce precise variations in their successive striking sequences, known as "changes". This can be by method ringing in which the ringers commit to memor ...

bells (tenor: in F) at

Old North Church Old North Church (officially, Christ Church in the City of Boston), at 193 Salem Street, in the North End, Boston, is the location from which the famous "One if by land, two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent. This phrase is related ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

were cast by Abel Rudhall in 1744 and hung in 1745. One bell has the inscription: "We are the first ring of bells cast for the British Empire in North America, A.R. 1744." All eight bells from the

Church of St Anne, Shandon The Church of St Anne is a Church of Ireland church located in the Shandon district of Cork city in Ireland. Built between 1722 and 1726, it is situated on a hill overlooking the River Lee. The church tower is a noted landmark and symbol of the ...

, an iconic symbol of Cork, Ireland, were cast by Abel Rudhall in 1750, although they were recast twice in 1865 and 1906. Four bells of

Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral ( ga, Ardeaglais Naomh Fionnbarra) is a Gothic Revival three-spire Church of Ireland cathedral in the city of Cork. It is located on the south bank of the River Lee and dedicated to Finbarr of Cork, patron saint of ...

, Cork, including the tenor, remain from the ring of eight cast by Abel Rudhall in 1751. Five bells cast by Abel Rudhall in 1757 still hang in

Wells Cathedral Wells Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Wells, Somerset, England, dedicated to St Andrew the Apostle. It is the seat of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, whose cathedra it holds as mother church of the Diocese of Bath and Wells. Built as a ...

. Bells cast in 1762 by Thomas Rudhall hang in St George's, Kelmscott, Oxfordshire.

References

{{Bells Bell foundries of the United Kingdom Defunct manufacturing companies of the United Kingdom 1684 establishments in England 1828 disestablishments Companies based in Gloucester Industrial history of Gloucestershire