The Devil's Knell at Dewsbury Minster and the tenor bell, BLACK TOM

The Devil`s Knell will be tolled on Christmas Eve, to finish on the stroke of midnight.

In 1434, a local knight, Sir Thomas de Soothill, flew into a rage upon hearing that a servant boy had failed to attend church that week. He grabbed the boy and, lifting him up, threw him into a mill pond, where the boy drowned. Overwhelmed by remorse at the murder, and as an act of penance, de Soothill paid for a new 1300-weight tenor bell for the parish church (now Dewsbury Minster), asking for it to be tolled at his funeral as people prayed for his soul. Sir Thomas also instituted the practice that the bell (named Black Tom after its benefactor) should be to be rung on Christmas Eve, with one toll for each year of the Christian Era, to proclaim the defeat of evil and the forgiveness of all sins, not just his own.

The tenor bell, Black Tom, was featured on a 31p stamp in the 1980s,
as part of a Royal Mail set called Traditions of England.

Now, of course the original bell is there no longer, having been recast in 1820, then again in 1875 to form part of the new ring.

The current inscription on the bell is:
I SHALL BE HERE IF TREATED JUST
WHEN THEY ARE MOULDERING IN THE DUST

We meet around 10pm, having raised Black Tom earlier in the evening.
In Odd numbered years, (2011, 2013, 2015) we will prepare the bells to be stood at Backstroke.
In Even numbered years, (2012, 2014, 2016) we will prepare the bells to be stood at Handstroke
We bring tea, coffee, mince pies, Christmas cake and anything else to share.
The ringing starts around 10:20, The pace has to be "as though for a funeral", around 20 blows per minutes, hence 100 minutes.
Each person will ring 100 blows, adjudicated by an assistant, then a changeover to the next ringer is done seamlessly.
The ringer signs off that 100. We have a chart of target times, adjustments to the pace as needed.

As midnight approaches we have to ensure that the target in achieved without error, and a cheer goes up as the bells stands.

In 2015, I built an electronic counter system, with a display of the count.
and recorded a full length video of the ringing. That is posted on YouTube at

Then all downstairs for Midnight Christmas Mass

Our progress in 2015

The pictures are copyright, hence if you wish to use them commercially, please contact me

Below each picture is a link to download the massive RAW or TIFF files
It is impossible to email these due to the size