Change Ringing and Bell Specifications

History of the Bells

"Could you please turn off the bells!"

This request was made one Tuesday evening to the priest on duty at the Cathedral. The man complained that he and his son were trying to get some sleep in a nearby hotel. The bells were keeping them awake. "So please turn them off."   "You don’t turn the bells off," the priest explained. "They are not automatic; people are ringing them."
"Really!" was the surprised reply. "How do they do that?"
After a short and dynamic description about how the bells are hung for change ringing and the different methods of changes, the man was heard to say as he went down the rectory steps, "I cannot wait to tell my son about this!"

This is something special about bell ringing and about the bells at Holy Rosary Cathedral. This page will tell you something about both.

Of the fifty or so towers outside of England where the bells are hung in the English way, there are three in British Columbia: Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria, Westminster Abbey in Mission and Holy Rosary Cathedral.

The solemn blessing, or "baptism," of the bells took place on Sunday, October 21, 1900. At the time there was a ring of seven bells, named after the seven Sacraments. They were not hung for change ringing at first. At the time they cost $9,000 and were cast in Savoy, France. They ranged in weight from 700 lbs. (318 kg.) to 5,000 lbs. (2,273 kg.).

The bells were shipped across China and the Pacific Ocean to Vancouver. The bells were not tuned to scale and therefore not melodic. So it was decided to send them to an English Foundry near Bristol. Some of the bells were melted down and recast to make a ring of eight tuned bells—a full octave.

After a third oceanic crossing they were finally re-hung for change ringing in 1906. The heaviest weigh 16 hundredweight, or 1,700 pounds. Mr. Alfred Limpus was the one who initiated the changes and was Ring Master for many years.