Graham Pont
During 2014 the town of Keynsham in Somerset south-east of Bristol was rocked by a disagreement among residents that received coverage in the national press. The dispute arose out of an anonymous complaint by a resident that the bells of the local church, St John the Baptist, were too noisy for one living 300 metres away and should be silenced. In response, local residents raised a petition urging the Church not to take any action: the bells, they argued, were an important part of the town’s daily life and had been that way since Handel, who admired the ‘mellow tone’ of the Church organ, offered a new peal of bells in exchange for the organ.
The coverage of this episode in the Daily Mail (5 August 2014) revealed the existence of a local tradition at least two centuries old, the roots of which had eluded all biographies of the composer and histories of his musical activities. Without looking into the facts of the matter, the reporter Wills Robinson simply printed what the outraged locals had told him, leaving no doubt that this tradition with its curious roots is still alive and well in Keynsham.
Though no specific date has been claimed for the supposed exchange of the organ and bells, Handel was certainly associated with Keynsham. According to the Bath Chronicle and Herald (13 July 1935), Handel visited Bath three times, in 1730 (possibly as the guest of the Duke of Chandos who owned property in the area), in August 1749 and again in May 1751. It was possibly during his second visit that the composer presented the Church with a brass offertory plate inscribed with his name and the date 1750. There is also a Handel Road in Keynsham, not far from the High Street.
The Keynsham tradition was more critically examined by an article in the Bath Weekly, Chronicle and Herald (30 May 1936). This did not question the exchange of the organ and bells but pointed out that Handel could not have donated a complete peal of bells as some of those still extant in the 1930s had inscriptions dating from the 17th century (this evidence no longer exists, as the bells of St John the Baptist were all recast in 1987). In view of this, the anonymous author in the Bath Weekly concluded that Handel’s gift must have extended to only the two smaller bells that were recast in 1731 by the Bilbie family of Chew Stoke. That this recasting took place the year following Handel’s first visit to Bath suggests a plausible date for the legendary exchange. Another consideration overlooked in all accounts of the exchange is that, since Handel was a connoisseur of both organs and bells, this unusual exchange might have seemed a fair deal, at least as far as he was concerned.
Of this strange story one important question remains unanswered: what happened to the organ?
Source
Allen, F.A. (1969): The History of the Parish Church of St John the Baptist Keynsham. Keynsham Parish Church Council.