By Malcolm Loveday
The ringing of a curfew bell was enforced by William the Conqueror, not to ban people from the streets, but to mark the time when fire should be damped down for the night. The term ‘curfew’ comes from the French ‘couvre feu’ i.e. cover the fire. This was a sensible measure since if one timbre framed thatched roofed house caught fire it could lead to complete towns burning down while people slept at night, as happened in Chertsey in 1235. Clearly someone did not take heed of the Curfew bell!
It is thought that a Curfew is still rung at a handful of towers in the country. In Chertsey, the Curfew is rung in the winter months between Michaelmas (29th September) and Lady Day (25th March), on the weekday evenings at St Peter’s Church, Windsor Street, Chertsey, Surrey.
For a number of years the Curfew has been rung by different ringers on a rota basis and we now usually use the 4th bell, cast in 1756, weighing 8 cwt. The bell is rung up from the mouth down position until it is upside down; it is then tolled for ~ 2 minutes, then rung down so that the clock hammers can strike on the side of the bell throughout the day. After bell is rung down and the sound has died away, the bell is chimed to strike the number of days in the month, i.e. 9 blows for the ninth day of the month.
Although no one today turns off their central heating and goes to bed at 8.00pm, nevertheless we continue the ancient tradition of ringing the Curfew maintaining a link with Chertsey Abbey.
The ringing of the Curfew inspired Albert Smith to publish the story The Tale of Blanche Heriot in the early 1840’s based on a Chertsey legend which is commemorated by the statue near Chertsey Bridge.
Although after the Covid-19 lockdown we are now able to ring some of the bells on Sunday mornings we are restricted to only ringing 4 of the 8 bells to comply with the social distancing requirements. Likewise, to ring the Curfew on a rota basis it will be necessary to allocate specific ringers to the 3rd, 4th & 5th bells since different ringers are not allowed to touch the same bell rope without a 72 hour quarantine period.