John Fell, “one of the most distinguished of the deans of Christ Church,” who became Bishop of Oxford, “worked diligently upon the restoration of the college: the north side of the great quad was completed, the Broad Walk with its seventy two elm-trees on either side laid out, the house with a large sun-dial between Kill Canon and Peckwater built, and the Gateway Tower erected after a design by Sir Christopher Wren, as a home for great “Tom.“
Left: . Right: . [Click on images to enlarge them.]
This far famed bell, seven feet in diameter and weighing more than seven tons, hung in the tower of Oseney Abbey until the see was transferred to Christ Church, when it was hoisted up into the Cathedral Tower with the seven other Oseney bells - Haut clere, Douce, Clement, Austin, Marie, Gabriel, and John, but on the completion of Wren’s Tower it was removed thither and first sounded the hundred and one strokes ( one for each student ) which announce the closing of the gates every evening at five minutes past nine, on the anniversary of the Restoration in 1684. Five other bells have since been added to the Oseney seven, which now hang in the belfry over the hall staircase, making the beautiful Christ Church peal.
Christ Church: The Cathedral from the Garden. Drawn by W. G. Blackall. c. 1920. Source: The Charm of Oxford.
Bibliography
Artistic Colored Views of Oxford Being Proof Sheets of the Postcards of Oxford. Illustrated by W. G. Blackall. Oxford: E. Cross, nd. Internet Archive version of a copy in St. Michael's College Toronto. 3 October 2012.
Wells, J.. The Charm of Oxford. Illustrated by W. G. Blackall. 2nd ed. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton Kent & Co., [c.1920]. Internet Archive version of a copy in St. Michael's College Toronto. 3 October 2012.
Last modified 28 November 2022