Bells ringing from the Priory?

[Balliol1974]

I can remember as a young boy visiting my grandmother at Southampton Road in Kentish Town London in the 1940s laying in bed listening to the rather pleasing sound of bells being rung oposite where I think there was a Priory. I think that the bells were calling the fathers to the prayers in the priory opposite every so many Hours. That did create a slight problem in that I enjoyed their sound so much I used to try to stay awake to listen to the next lot of bells and as I had no idea when they should ring next lead to sleepless nights.
Could anyone tell me what those bells were ringing?

 

[YoungTradCath]

Maybe the Angelus bells.

 

[Batfink]

It’s a Dominican Priory (and parish church), Our Lady of the Rosary and St. Dominic. Their website has a section on the history of the church and some photos.

Back in the 40s, the friars kept a more monastic horarium/structure so it is quite likely that they were calling the brothers to the Office as you suggest.

And/or they may have had an Angelus bell, although given what little I know of the Church here in the 1940s (not my period so I may well be wrong) that seems unlikely.

I love that church so much! It’s where my fraternity of Lay Dominicans meet, my spiritual director lives and so many happy memories. I was there yesterday. I love it!

 

[englishredrose]

would the Angelus be rung in the evening? I thought that was rung at midday?

was it every evening do you remember

may be simply bell ringing practice as ours practice monday evenings?

Has enjoying them as a child prompted you to think about bell ringing? If you can keep count then you can do the bell ringing

 

[Balliol1974]

I am in my 75 year and I am in the process of writing a “few words” about my life in the hope that my children may be interested enough to want to read them. The period where I refer to the sound of the bells being rung must have been in the mid-1940s when I was allowed to stay with my grandmother at number 16 Southampton Road. I think that it was a single bell rung in a definite pattern possible of three rings repeated. Having said that if my memory serves me accurately church bells were not allowed to be rung until the Second World War ended and it was definitely in during the night time which for me would have been from 21.00 to 07.00
Two little questions:

1. I used the St Dominic’s Web Page to ask this question possibly not geting through.
2. I thought that this Forum had the facility of contacting forum users if questions they asked received an answer or comment and that has not happened and I thought no one had offered an answer. Automatic E-Mail answers are important to me because I have a number of questions I would like to pursue as I attempt to understand a little about the Catholic Ireland that my father was born into in the year 1911.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Some 60 years ago I used to go to a Passionist monastery for retreat each year. They used to get up at about 2am, if I remember correctly, to do the Office of Matins. I never got up for it, but suspect that a bell was rung at that time to call the monks to prayer.

I think in the new arrangement of the Divine Office [now the Liturgy of the Hours] Matins has become the Office of Readings and may be said at any time of the day. I don’t know if the monasteries still get up at 2 to say it.

One of the monks told us that, when he was a seminarian, he once heard a fellow student muttering on the way to chapel at 2am: “Fiat, d— it, Fiat.”

 

[triumphguy]

I can remember as a young boy visiting my grandmother at Southampton Road in Kentish Town London in the 1940s laying in bed listening to the rather pleasing sound of bells being rung oposite where I think there was a Priory. I think that the bells were calling the fathers to the prayers in the priory opposite every so many Hours. That did create a slight problem in that I enjoyed their sound so much I used to try to stay awake to listen to the next lot of bells and as I had no idea when they should ring next lead to sleepless nights.
Could anyone tell me what those bells were ringing?

Baliol?

Well done:thumbsup:

 

[OraLabora]

Some 60 years ago I used to go to a Passionist monastery for retreat each year. They used to get up at about 2am, if I remember correctly, to do the Office of Matins. I never got up for it, but suspect that a bell was rung at that time to call the monks to prayer.

I think in the new arrangement of the Divine Office [now the Liturgy of the Hours] Matins has become the Office of Readings and may be said at any time of the day. I don’t know if the monasteries still get up at 2 to say it.

One of the monks told us that, when he was a seminarian, he once heard a fellow student muttering on the way to chapel at 2am: “Fiat, d— it, Fiat.”

The Office of Readings only applies to communities using the Roman Office. Communities that use a Monastic Liturgy of the Hours would be different. Locally, the Benedictine men do Vigils (Matins) at 5 am; the local Benedictine women, anticipated the evening before, and the local Cistercians, at 4 am. Some communities using the Roman Office also do the Office of Readings as Vigils/Matins, and will time the Office appropriately, usually anticipated the evening before, or very early in the morning.

would the Angelus be rung in the evening? I thought that was rung at midday?

was it every evening do you remember

may be simply bell ringing practice as ours practice monday evenings?

Has enjoying them as a child prompted you to think about bell ringing? If you can keep count then you can do the bell ringing

In our town the Angelus bells are rung at noon and 6 pm. I believe the Angelus is normally recited at 6 am, noon, 6 pm, and at Compline; at least that’s the case in the abbey I’m associated with.