Watson's Database for the Church Bells of Britain
This database serves as a location for me to store and publish my personal photos and details from my private visits to towers and bells across the Country. I do not intend for this database to rival or replace in any way any of the existing databases, which i hope to identify below. In recent years there have been a number of new databases created by individuals that are recording the church bells in their locality.
The globally recognised, and greatest detailed, database for church bells is Dove's Guide (https://dove.cccbr.org.uk/), that was first published in book form by Ronald H Dove in 1950. Now managed by the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers, the website has a full database of full circle, single bells, carillons, hemispherical bells, tubular bells an chimes across the world.
Focussing in more detail within the county of Sussex is The Bells of Sussex (https://thebellsofsussex.weebly.com/), that was created by Kye L Leaver in 2020. Regularly updated and added to, Kye goes into great detail of the history and tuning specifics of each bell, following in the style of George P Elphick, a Lewes ringer, who wrote and published Sussex Bells and Belfries in 1970, which itself is a successor to The Church Bells of Sussex, published by Amherst Daniel Tyssen in 1864.
Similar to that of Mr Leaver's The Bells of Sussex, a recently created similar site named The Bells of Essex (https://bellsofessex.weebly.com/), created by Ryan Faulkner-Hatt in 2024. The site is following in the same style as that of The Bells of Sussex.
Below is a contents, sorted into counties. To find a tower please search for it under the county it is located in, and within each county page there should be a list of the towers I have recorded in alphabetical order.
England
Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Bristol, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Durham, East Riding of Yorkshire, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Greater London, Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, City of London, Merseyside, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, Shropshire, Somerset, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Tyne and Wear, Warwickshire, West Midlands, West Sussex, West Yorkshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire.
Northern Ireland
Antrim, Armagh, City of Belfast, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, City of Derry and Tyrone.
Scotland
City of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll, Ayrshire, Banffshire, Berwickshire, Bute, Caithness, Clackmannanshire, Dumfriesshire, Dunbartonshire, City of Dundee, East Lothian, City of Edinburgh, Fife, City of Glasgow, Inverness-shire, Kincardineshire, Kinross-shire, Kirkcudbrightshire, Lanarkshire, Midlothian, Moray, Nairnshire, Orkney, Peeblesshire, Perthshire, Renfrewshire, Ross and Cromarty, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire, Shetland, Stirlingshire, Sutherland, West Lothian and Wigtownshire
Wales
Carmarthenshire, Clwyd, Denbighshire, Dyfed, Flintshire, Gwent, Gwynedd, Mid Glamorgan, Monmouthshire, Pembrokeshire, Powys, South Glamorgan, West Glamorgan and Wrexham.