The Witness Bell in Salisbury Cathedral

The First large Bell of the Tubular Bell Project

Written on July 11, 2024. Posted in Stories.

In 2015 Quentin Cowen called in a team to create the first of the large Tubular Bells of the Tubular Bell Project

Co-created in collaboration by a team of seven makers, the brass bell of 1.9 metres in length, 15 cms diameter and 5mm thick, was forged over a period of one week in a simple woodland setting in the vale of the Avon River, close to the ancient sites of Stone Henge and Old Sarum, near to Salisbury, Wiltshire. A couple of years later, with considerable support from friends of the Salisbury Cathedral, the bell was gifted to and then hung in Cathedral itself where it continues to hang in the chapel behind the main altar.

Witness

It hangs and plays as ‘A Witness’’. A witness to place, to space, to time, to the events and silences of these times.

Witness holds no belief or intention.

It is still and free in its capacity to sound or ‘listen’, and it’s clear strong voice may bring one to honour that quality ever more.

It is a beautiful and generous instrument, able to be played and sounded into the vast gothic Cathedral space by anyone who feels moved to sound it with the felted cast iron mallet that was forged to bring out the tones.

Please go and meet this bell one day. Play it and allow yourself to sense the power of sound and stillness and the reach of its life in this sanctuary of energetic frequencies that resonate through the deep channels of water beneath the building itself and throughout this mighty and important gothic cathedral.

Video

We invite anyone who feels a resonance with being the caller for one of these bells into a particular place to get in touch with us. From there we move into a co-creation space with you and the invitation you sense.

Would you like to have a tubular bell – small or large – in your house, project, garden, community?

Is there a land or a place that you feel may be calling for a focal point where a bell may resound its wordless gift?

Tubular Bell Project

Please get in touch, we would love you to receive a bell and become part of this co-creation of the web of coherence.