The Craft of Bell Making

A collection of lesson resources for teachers and students studying at key stage level 2,3 & 4.

All the lesson resources listed below have been themed around the exhibition ‘Sound & Silence: an exhibition of contemporary bells’, displayed in our Jubilee Gallery 22 March - 14 June 2025.

Bell making is a heritage craft which is on the red list of critically endangered crafts in the UK.

Gallery Tour

Sound and Silence: an exhibition of contemporary bells.

22 Mar -
14 June 2025

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Images by: Nigel Dutt

Resources

Sound & Silence Education Notes

Use this downloadable PDF to help students gain insight into the history and process of bell making and its heritage status as an endangered craft.

Time and Tide Bells in brief

Learn about the Time & Tide Bell project by watching this short video clip courtesy of Marcus Vergette. 

Film credit: Time & Tide / Marcus Vergette

Time and Tide Bell

A short Plymouth Live video clip documenting the installation of the Time & Tide bell in Appledore by Sound & Silence exhibitor Marcus Vergette.

Film credit: Plymouth Live / Marcus Vergette

Award films 2023: Copper Sounds

Learn more about Sound & Silence exhibitors, Copper Sounds, through this short video clip.

Sequenced Ceramics by artistic duo Copper Sounds is an intimate sonic installation in which ceramics are played by mechanical beaters, resulting in hypnotic sound patterns that flow in and out of each other.

Film Credit: British Ceramics Biennial / Rob Hill / Copper Sounds

Copper Sounds - Sequence 6

Watch a performance of Sequence 6, a single taken from the Sequenced Ceramics album (2024) by Copper Sounds.

Film credit: Double Vision
Music credit: Copper Sounds / mixed and mastered by Bruce down at Edgar studios
Courtesy of Noods Radio

A Tour around John Taylors Bell Foundry

Take a tour around Taylors Bell Foundry – the last major commercial bell foundry in the United Kingdom!

How to Tune a Bell at Taylors Bell Foundry

Learn about how bells are tuned!

Produced by Mae.

Practical Activities

Make a Hanging Bell

KS1-2

An activity for children aged 5-7 years old

Make a Musical Instrument

KS2-3

An activity for children aged 7-11 years old

Design & Sculpt a Bell

KS3-4

An activity for students aged 11-16 years old

Contextual

You can use this document to help students analyse and write about a piece of art or craft. It contains key questions, based mainly on the formal elements of art, to help students build their visual literacy and written skills.

This resource can be downloaded and used in a lesson or a visit to our galleries!