The Bells of Old York

*Location:

   Lower belfry
   St.James Cathedral
   King Street East at Church Street
   Toronto, Ontario, Canada
   LL: N 43.65032, W 79.37394

Site locator map

*Ringers' contact(s):

   The St.James Cathedral Guild of
     Change Ringers
   Pauline Smith, Secretary
   E: pauline.hs/@/hotmail DOTca
   - or -
   Dan Tregunno, Tower Captain
   W: 905-829-2544
   E: tregunno/@/strategy4 DOTca

      Verify the current ringers' contact(s) at the NAGCR Website.

*Contact:

   St.James Cathedral
   65 Church Street
   Toronto, ON  M5C 2E9
   T: 416-364-7865   F: 416-364-0295
   E: info/@/stjamescathedral DOTca

*Schedule:

   Practice Monday 1900-2100;
   service Sunday 1000-1100

*Remarks:

   Older bells came from St.James Church,
   Jamaica Road, Bermondsey (SE London),
   England, for which they were cast by
   Thomas Mears II (Whitechapel) in 1828.
   The first ring of 12 in North America.

*Technical data:

   Ring of 12 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is C# in the middle octave
   Transposition is not applicable
   Keyboard range:     ROPE  /    NONE  
   There are no added semitones
   The instrument was enlarged in 1996
     with  4 bells made by Whitechapel 
   Prior history:
     In 1828, the instrument was begun with 10 bells
       by Whitechapel (at location in Remarks above)
       (8 bells remain from that work.)
   No auxiliary mechanisms known
   Tower details not available
   Year of latest technical information source is 1996

The Cathedral Website has a section about the bells (see under Cathedral in left column).  Good pictures of the tower can be found there, as well as much information about these bells.  See the Architecture section for more pictures of the tower; the fifth photo on the "summer" row of this page shows best where the new lower belfry is located - just below the original belfry, where originally there were three small windows on each side of the tower.  Now those are louvered, with sound control doors behind them; an additional new trap door allows sound from the lower belfry up into the original belfry for egress.

Waymarking page, with 11 photos in gallery

Where the initial phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Whitechapel bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.
Where the final phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Whitechapel bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.

Ranking among all North American rings by pitch/weight.
Ranking among all North American rings by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all North American rings by year of completion.

Ranking among all North American chimes by size (number of bells).

Index to all tower bell instruments in ON, including the "older" 10-bell chime (STJA/1) in the upper belfry of the same tower.

   This page was built from the database on  4-Nov-23
   based on textual data last updated on 2020/12/12
   and on technical data last updated on 2001/04/27