Saturday 17 September 2022

Webcam to broadcast bells rung to mark the Queen's funeral

(The tense of this post has been modified to refer to a past event.)

On Monday 19th September, Derby Cathedral's ancient bells were rung, fully muffled, from 10am to 11am, prior to the funeral of Her Majesty the Queen in London. 

Webcam watchers were able to see and and hear them on a special webcam, which we set up at short notice for the occasion. 

Later that Monday evening, from 5pm to 8pm, a full peal of the Cathedral's bells was attempted. It took the ringing team over three hours to complete and, once again, the bells were be muffled as a mark of respect for Her Late Majesty.

Cast in 1520 during the reign of Henry VIII, this Tenor bell was half-muffled.
It generated a respectful, loud tolling sound amongst all the other muffled peal of bells.



On both these occasions all bells, except for tenor,  were muffled, so as to create a tolling effect.  The tenor bell - had its clapper half-muffled - which created a single loud tolling ring on the backstroke. 


Looking onto the bells in their 'down' position

We worked late into the evening on Friday with Roger, one of the Cathedral ringers, and with Tim Unwin from Derby City Council to provide a way for everyone to both listen and to watch the bells ringing on the day of Her Majesty's funeral. Because of the incredible volume inside the bell tower, we found our camera's microphone suffered sound distortion, but this was rectified before Monday 19th by using an external microphone