The Bells of the former Diocese
of
Ripon and Leeds
At Easter 2014 the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds ceased to be and became part of the new Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales. All the parishes which were in the former diocese have become part of the new diocese. The Archdeaconry of Leeds has gained some churches on its western and southern boundaries. The Archdeaconry of Richmond has now become part of a much larger Archdeaconry of Richmond and Craven.
Details of bells in this website are based on the research of the late Ranald Clouston who surveyed much of the old North Riding, George Dawson (GAD) who has searched Taylor's records extensively, and Andrew Aspland (ARA) who has put together the beginnings of this website and carried out field work principally in the Leeds and Harrogate areas and who has taken most of the photographs. J Eyre Poppleton (Poppleton) carried out a survey of bells in the ancient churches of the West Riding at the end of the nineteenth century. These were published by theYorkshire Archaeological Society. Details of his discoveries are included where possible. It must be noted that he does not always number the bells from treble to tenor and therefore the inscriptions were not always ascribed to the correct bell. He made plaster casts of several bellfounders' marks and these were photographed to produce the plates for his work. An extensive collection of his bell rubbings and plaster casts, including the one used to illustrate his articles, are still held by the Yorkshire Archaeological Society.
R V Taylor (RVT) compiled much information about Leeds churches in his Ecclesiae Leodiensis in 1875. He included considerable detail about the work done to churches in the nineteenth century and he generally included bells. Unfortunately his work only covers the first half of the alphabet and the proposed volume two was not published.
The former diocese was organised into two Archdeaconries and both of these were subdivided into four Deaneries.
|
Archdeaconry of Richmond |
Archdeaconry of Leeds |
| Deanery of Richmond | Deanery of Allerton |
| Deanery of Wensley | Deanery of Headingley |
| Deanery of Ripon | Deanery of Whitkirk |
| Deanery of Harrogate | Deanery of Armley |
| Other Churches | Secular Buildings | Lost Churches |
| Redundant, Roman Catholic, URC etc. | Schools, Town Halls etc. | Demolished |