The Bells That Ring in the Past: Medieval Voices at St Mary’s Stelling

Among the treasures of St Mary’s, Stelling Minnis, few are as evocative as its three medieval bells. Dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, they are more than instruments—they are the parish voice, ringing out across the centuries.

Three Bells, Three Stories

• The oldest (700 years) bears the inscription “Vox Augustini Sonet In Aure Dei”—“May the voice of Augustine sound in the ear of God.”

• Another is dedicated to Santa Katerina, reflecting medieval devotion to St Catherine of Alexandria.

• The third, simpler in form, completes the harmony of the ring.

Each inscription is a prayer cast into bronze, heard by villagers for over 500 years.

From Teams to a Single Ringer

In centuries past, a team of bell-ringers swung the bells in great arcs, filling the valley with sound. By the 1980s, however, with fewer ringers available, the church adopted the Ellacombe apparatus—a mechanism that allows one person to chime the bells by pulling ropes connected to internal hammers. The sound is gentler than a full peal, but the voices of the bells are preserved.

Why They Matter

These bells have tolled through plague, war, and peace; they have marked weddings, funerals, and harvests. To hear them today is to share in the same soundscape as the generations who lived, worked, and prayed here before us.

So next time you hear the bells of St Mary’s, pause and listen. Their voices may be old, but their message is timeless: a call to gather, to remember, and to hope.