The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Great Peter of York
A large crowd and choir, on an historic day at York Minster, greet the arrival of a replacement big bell, watching and singing as labourers manfully slide the 10 ton bell off a truck.
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Overview
On a rainy day a choir sings on the steps of York Minster, witnessing the rare event of the St Peter hour bell, the third largest in the country, being unloaded from the back of an early heavy lorry. The huge bell is manually eased off on sturdy beams of timber, replacing the old one which is by now was nearly a hundred years old.
The bell was cast at Taylor's Bellfoundry in Loughborough in April 1927, arriving in York on Tuesday 20th September at 2.45 p.m. with a special service outside the cathedral at 4 p.m. Great Peter, still in full swing, is slightly heavier than the previous one made in 1845. It chimes the hour, and for 10 minutes at midday, everyday. It joins six other clock bells on the north-west tower which ring the changes, and 14 bells on the south-west tower. The two bigger bells at the time were, and still are, Big Ben and the one at St. Paul's Cathedral. However, it is the largest bell to be swung manually. All of these bells were cast at Taylor's Bellfoundry, which has cast more large bells than at any other bell foundry in history.
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