Peal Records
Bedfordshire Association Peal Records
Until 1923 the Association rules required peals to be entered into a Peal Book; Association Peals are now published each year in the Annual Report.
No official number of Bedfordshire Association peals rung appears to have existed until Michael Orme undertook considerable research in 1975 to ascertain the total number of peals rung by the Bedfordshire Association up to 31st December 1974. Michael produced a chart showing how many peals had been rung by the Bedfordshire Association each year in each tower in Bedfordshire, also the totals each year for peals rung outside Bedfordshire and hand bell peals; that chart is in the Association Library.
In recent years, Richard Hillson and Pat Albon have undertaken more research and all known peals have been entered on BellBoard. Up to 31st December 2025, the number of known Bedfordshire Association peals is 4,399 (4,314 on tower bells and 85 on handbells) and these peals can be viewed on BellBoard which is maintained by the Ringing World. The Bedfordshire Association has no control over either the functionality of BellBoard or any amendments made to BellBoard. Consequently, entries on BellBoard aren’t an official Bedfordshire Association record, but the information is a useful searchable database which can be imported into a spreadsheet.
These figures up to 31st December 2025 may still be inaccurate, not least because some peals are likely to have been unrecorded or still awaiting discovery. If you’re interested in helping with further research, please do get in touch!
For completeness, and to help anyone wanting to do further research, details are available of certain peals which were either included or excluded from the peal total beds.assn.peals.to.2025 and also a comparison between the number of Bedfordshire Association peals on BellBoard and PealBase beds.assn.peals.to.2025.comp showing the adjustments necessary to reconcile the Bedfordshire Association’s peal total on the two systems as at 31st December 2025.
Joint Peals (i.e. peals rung for more than one Association/Society) present a problem for both BellBoard and PealBase. BellBoard has been considering its treatment of Joint Peals for some years whereas PealBase has a policy of generally attributing a Joint Peal to the first named Association/Society.
Inspecting the Peal Books
The Peal Books from 1897 to 1920 are deposited in Bedfordshire County Records Office. where they can be inspected free of charge (but not taken away) by appointment at Bedfordshire Archives, Riverside Building, Borough Hall, Bedford, MK42 9AP, 01234 228833, email archive@bedford.gov.uk) on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday with separate morning (9.30am to 1.00pm) and afternoon (2.00pm to 4.30pm) sessions. The 1897-1906 Peal Book is Catalogue Number X529/7 and the 1906-1920 Peal Book is Catalogue Number X529/8. The Association’s 1976 Annual Report (on Page 41) lists Association Records which were deposited at the County Records Office in 1976.
A very big thank you to Richard and Pat for all their painstaking work on this!