Chertsey's Curfew

We still ring curfew from Michaelmas (29th September) to Lady Day (25th March). Today it is normally rung on the 4th bell of 1756 as we do not want to wear out the old 1380 Curfew bell. At 8pm Monday-Friday, we ring up (raise) the bell and then ring 50 blows slowly (ie "to the balance"). Then we ring down (lower) the bell and finally swing-chime a number of blows corresponding to the date of the month - sometimes on the old Curfew bell. Click here to see and hear this being done if you have RealPlayer.

The history of the Curfew in Chertsey may date back to 1235 when a fire in the town spread to and damaged part of the Abbey. The Normans had brought the idea to England as a means of discouraging dissent and reducing the risk of fire at night, and Abbot John de Rutherwyk had a bell made in 1310. This bell broke in July 1370 when the tower of the Abbey collapsed, and a replacement bell, which we still ring, was re-cast in 1380. The origin of Chertsey's Curfew is not documented, but we know that it has been rung since Georgian times (cf. Manning & Bray's History of Surrey), and then it was said to be an old custom, so it may well have been rung on a regular basis since the 13th or 14th century.

Very few bell towers (maybe half a dozen) still manually ring a Curfew today - and we have a suspicion that rather few people in Chertsey put out their fires and retire to bed at 8pm when they hear it! Until a few years ago Chertsey's ringers were paid £3 a year (about 40p per ringer per annum) by Runnymede Borough Council to ring the curfew, however the council decided to hand over a nominal sum to allow the tower to pay itself a similar amount arising from the annual interest! The administration costs saved in one year must have well outweighed the capital sum!

Blanche Heriot and the Legend of the Curfew Bell

The statue of Blanche Heriot
near Chertsey Bridge.

 There are a number of versions of the legend, setting it in different periods. Here is one:

In October of 1470, The Earl of Warwick drove Edward IV out of England and reinstated Henry VI as king. Edward returned in March 1471, with ships and money supplied by the Duke of Burgundy. He landed in Yorkshire, and soon assembled a small army, gathering reinforcements as he marched south. On 12 April he entered London. Warwick marched to attack and early on Easter Day, 14th April 1471, a fierce battle took place in the mist at Barnet, north of London, between King Edward IV and 8,000 men and the Earl of Warwick and 10,000 men. Edward’s army prevailed and many men fled the field towards London. One of these, Blanch Heriot’s lover, a Lancastrian, fled too, and reached Chertsey where he sought sanctuary in the Abbey. He had chivalrously spared the life of a prominent Yorkist in the battle and had been give a ring as a token. He was, however, captured by Yorkist soldiers in Chertsey and sentenced to death at curfew. A rider was dispatched with the ring to King Edward in London to seek a pardon, but he was delayed on his return crossing the Thames at Laleham Ferry. Blanche had to take action, so ascended the bell tower and hung onto the bell to stop curfew being sounded. By the time the soldiers investigated, the messenger had arrived with the pardon and her lover was set free.

On May 21, Henry VI was murdered in the Tower of London at the behest of Edward and buried in the Lady Chapel at Chertsey Abbey. His body was later disinterred and reburied in St. Georges Chapel, Windsor. The curfew bell, cast in 1310 and re-cast in 1380 following damage caused by the collapse of the crossing and tower of the Abbey in July 1370, is the 5th bell in St. Peter's tower.
We have been given a copy of a poem by Montgomerie Ranking. This appears to date from the 1880's (the picture shows the tower with the single clock face of the pre-1892 clock and the style of the post-1808 changes. It was published alongside another article which dates to around 1887. It recounts the Blanche Heriot story but sets it in Cromwellian times.