Hypnogoria: bells

Now I am sure many of you will have heard of The Dunwich Horror, the classic weird tale by HP Lovecraft. However, did you know that sinister town in Lovecraft's horror haunted version of New England takes its name from a real village in Britain?

Dunwich village can be found on the Suffolk coast, a tiny place of less than two hundred souls. However it wasn't always so. In the Anglo-Saxon times, Dunwich was the capital of the Kingdom of the East Angles, but the harbour and indeed, most of the town has long since disappeared due to coastal erosion.

As an ancient place, it naturally has some ghosts. One is the shade of a Victorian squire, who can be seen riding a phantom horse. In life he was Miles Barne, a breeder of thoroughbred horses, and often could be seen wearing a distinctive tall white hat, exercising his steeds up on Dunwich Heath. But death has not stopped him riding, for he has been sighted many times, with local lore holding that your best chance of getting a glimpse of the ghostly squire is when the moon is either full or waning.

More mysterious is a lady in Elizabethan dress, who has been spotted walking across the heath, and down towards the sea. But as she nears the waves, she vanishes.

And possibly this is due to the fact that much of what was Dunwich now lies beneath the waves. However perhaps the ancient vanished seaport survives in a fashion, for it is said that at Christmas time one can hear the bells of the drowned churches of Dunwich ring out again, from beneath the waves, on the sea's dead floor...

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Welcome dear friends back to the Hypnogoria Old-time Yuletide Advent Calendar! And today we are in search of what D may stand for. Decorations we have already spoken much about, while the little drummer boy may well be too limited! So then, as I thought it was high time to have something darker, today we shall learn of the Devil’s Knell.

Now bells have long been associated with churches and worship, and as we all know thanks to references in popular songs, the bells ring out at Christmas time. However not all Christmas bells are ringing “Their old familiar carols play” and have a different message than “Of peace on Earth, good will to men”.

One such bell is Black Tom at Dewsbury Minster Church in West Yorkshire. For every Christmas Eve, this tenor bell is rang as what used to be called the passing bell - tolling to signify a death, ringing the death knell. They say ask not whom bells tolls for but in case we must! And I can reveal that Black Tom tolls for the death of Satan himself, forever defeated by the birth of Christ, at Christmas. And what is more the bell is rung once for each passing year since the Devil’s death, with the final peal being rang at midnight!

But where did this curious custom come from? Well, there is a story… And while it may be just a legend, it is a good tale never-the-less.

In the early 15th century, in 1434 to be precise, Sir Thomas de Soothill, a local knight, discovered that one of his servants had failed to attend church the previous week. When he confronted the boy, the knight lost his temper and he threw the lad into a mill pond. However the boy drowned and Sir Thomas was wracked with guilt and remorse.

So then, in an attempt to demonstrate his penance, Sir Thomas de Soothill paid for a new 1300-weight tenor bell to be installed in his parish church of Dewsbury Minster. And it was Sir Thomas too who proclaimed that the new bell, nicknamed Black Tom after him by the locals, should ring out on Christmas Eve, with one toll for each year since Christ’s birth, to proclaim the defeat of evil and the forgiveness of all sins, not least his own.

As for Black Tom, the original bell was recast in 1820, then again in 1875 to form part of the new ring. And the current inscription on the bell reflects its longevity -

I SHALL BE HERE IF TREATED JUST

WHEN THEY ARE MOULDERING IN THE DUST

Obviously with every passing year the tolling of the Devil’s Knell becomes a trickier task. Not so long ago, a scorer was elected to keep count, but now an electronic gadget tracks the progress of the task. To fit in over two thousand peals, the ringing now begins around 10 PM, with the midnight mass beginning just over an hour later at 11.15, with the tolling continuing throughout the service, until it reaches its climax at midnight. However, while the task is a solemn and difficult one, you will be pleased to learn that the ringers are well fortified in their labours with Christmas cake, mince pies, and lots of cups of tea!