If there is a sound I associate with the city of York, it’s the bells of the minster.  They have little religious significance to me, and probably because of that they often seem a kind of aural ambush of the sublime, arriving suddenly and permeating the little streets with echoing peals that are quite haunting.  Just the other day the bells played a rendition of Greensleeves and then another melancholy carol– something that sounded much like Eliza’s Aria (which will now forever be known as the Lloyds TSB song).

I like to imagine the bells are summoned from the Minster itself, deep beneath the doomstone, and that they are the song of the many greenmen secreted in the mansory.  But really, it’s an athletic endeavor, the ringing of the bells. In the two towers there are 56 bells, the most bells of any English cathedral.  You can read about the bells and their ringers on the ringer’s site.  Listening to the bells reminds me of my favourite Tarkovsky film, Andrei Rublev, set in Medieval Russia, where the casting of a bell is an almost magical act.

After standing in the rain (ill advised– I caught cold) spellbound by the sound, I was inspired to make these earrings in tribute.

York Minster Rose Windows, Handmade Earrings by Feral Strumpet on Etsy