St. Mathew-in-the-City Bell Ringing

Saint Mathews Bell Tower

As part of the Auckland Heritage Festival, my husband and I had the unique experience of visiting the bell tower, seeing and hearing the bells being rung, and learning about how everything worked. I hate to admit it, but when I hear the bells and think bell-tower my first thought is Notre-Dame Cathedral and Quasimodo. It isn't something I really associated with modern times and I thought that most bell towers would have been converted to a mechanical bell ringing system.


When we first got to the church we weren't entirely sure of where to go, but everyone in New Zealand has been very welcoming and friendly. We were directed inside where we were taught about the history of the tower, the history of the bells, and how bell-ringing works. 


The bells in this tower were cast in London, England in 1862 for the International Exhibition. They were shipped aboard the good ship Nimroud to Auckland in 1863. The bells were then hung in first in Bishopscourt, Parnell, and then moved to the tower of St. Matthew in 1906. The bells were sent back to London in 1970 for overhaul since a few of them were cracked. The lightest bell (the treble) weighs 300kg, whereas the heaviest (the tenor) weighs 875kg! 

Model of the bells

The bells are generally left in the 'up' position, resting against a horizontal beam of wood under the bell called the stay. When the rope is pulled, the bell swings down, and then back into the up position, although the bell won't quite balance at this point since the stay is slightly off-centre. The rope is then pulled a second time to return the bell to the up position where it can again rest against the stay. (See the video at the end of the blog). So each time the bell is rung, it is generally rung twice. 

The large tenor bell in the up position

There was only room for about 15 people in the bell-ringing chamber, so we took the chance to wander around the church and admire the architecture. One of the attendants told us that Saint Matthews is one of the best examples of Victorian Gothic architecture in the southern hemisphere. The stained glass windows were absolutely beautiful!

The bell-pulling ropes leading up to the bells

The staircase leading up to the bell-ringing chamber was 54 stairs; very steep, tightly winding stairs! I banged my knees a couple of times while climbing up. The bell-ringing chamber was surprisingly comfortable! Comfy chairs around the outside and a set of ropes hanging down from the ceiling. The bell-ringers gave a brief safety talk (keep your feet on the floor, nothing dangling around your neck, stay to the edge of the room to minimize the risk of getting caught in the ropes while they are ringing, etc.) and then they started ringing chords. It was really neat to see!

I then had a chance to go up into the bell chamber itself to see the bells. They rang the tenor bell a few times so that we could see how it all works; LOUD!!!! I love the sound of bells though so I really didn't mind. Back down in the bell ringing chamber and they gave me a chance to try chiming on of the small bells that they had lowered to the down position. They didn't want to risk us tourists breaking the stay by ringing the bells from the up position. It was a lot of fun to try and I started to get the feel for how the bell was swinging and how hard to pull on the rope to make it chime regularly. Of course, because of my height I got the extra safety briefing of "don't fall off of the box that we are letting you stand on so you can reach the rope." I really enjoyed seeing the bells and would certainly be interested in learning more about bell ringing. Hopefully I will have the chance at some point to try this again, but either way, I am grateful to the volunteers for sharing this very unique experience!