A 260-year-old bell - probably brought to Windsor by the Jesuits in 1750 - was recently discovered in the Assumption Church belfries.
On Wednesday, Jason Grossi, the principal architect working on the $9.6 million reconstruction of the 170-year-old church, climbed up two rickety 20-foot ladders and squeezed through a dirt encrusted opening to ring the three-foot tall bell that sits on the north wall of the belfries. Then he rang the church's main bell, which trilled so loud it could be heard halfway across the University of Windsor campus.
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The Jesuit bell was discovered by Steven Ball, a University of Michigan musical instruments professor. Last summer Ball, who is also an organist, was substituting at an Assumption mass and decided to climb into the belfries. As a campanologist, he studies bells and bell ringing. He informed officials about the second bell, but it wasn't investigated for a year.
Ball couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday but Grossi said the bell probably came to Canada with the Jesuits from France sometime after 1701.
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Assumption Church, which is the oldest building west of Montreal, is undergoing a massive renovation that will probably take 10 years to complete.
Read the entire story: Historic bell tolls again at Assumption Church (Windsor Star)
