Sheffield Cathedral is ringing the changes as it prepares to install the church’s first new bell in more than 45 years. The £20,500 instrument, paid for following a three-year fundraising appeal, will add to the cathedral’s existing set of 13 bells and will help ringers to train more beginners. It will be lifted into place next month, after being blessed on October 1 in a special service by the Bishop of Sheffield, the Rt Rev Pete Wilcox. The bell will be hoisted up into its chamber from the floor of the cathedral through specially-designed trap doors. The Rev Keith Farrow, canon missioner, said that although the cathedral has a ‘fine set of bells’, they were quite heavy and ringers needed ‘considerable training’. The church’s largest bell, the tenor, weighs almost two tons – the new addition is just six hundredweight, a little over 300kg.
