Paul David Trevor Cattermole

The following obituary was first published in the Daily Telegraph on 28 August 2009.

Paul Cattermole, who died on July 31 2009, aged 67, was a leading authority on church bells and bell-ringing; he demonstrated that the sound of bells was as characteristic and evocative of everyday life in medieval England as is the call of the muezzin of Cairo or Istanbul.

A mathematics teacher by profession, Cattermole was official archivist at Wymondham Abbey and adviser on bells to the diocese of Norwich.

His Norfolk roots were important, for it was in the eastern counties that "scientific" change ringing is thought to have developed, and the county boasts a rich heritage of medieval churches and associated documentary material which enabled Cattermole to build up a picture of the function of bells, the technical development of church towers and bell frames and the links between bell ringers and local communities.

Cattermole, who could read (and speak) fluent medieval Latin, was the author of several studies of church bells, most importantly Church Bells and Bell-Ringing: a Norfolk Profile, a major work of reference published in 1990 after he had visited and inspected the bells in some 400 Norfolk churches.

In a contribution to a recent book on the history of Norwich Cathedral, Cattermole described the central place of bells in monastic and parish life: The Norwich Customary (circa 1260) shows that the bells of Norwich Cathedral were used to summon the Benedictine monks of Norwich Priory to chapter meetings and services, while lay servants relied on the bells to tell them when to return to the Priory for meals and other domestic occasions.

A pair of small bells was usually rung before the daily offices, and bells were rung at significant moments in the liturgy. The ringing of bells for the dead was important, both on the day of the funeral and at intervals afterwards.

Festivals, Cattermole noted, were marked by special styles of ringing. On solemn occasions, such as Maundy Thursday, a single large bell might be used before the hour of absolution.

Three small bells were rung for vespers on feast days. More elaborate ringing is suggested by an instruction to sound "all the bells" before services on the principal festivals, when the ringing was sometimes "festive" (joyful) and at other times the bells were to be rung ut classicus (like a war trumpet), suggesting that they were clashed together, rather than rung as a sequence.

Such a complicated schedule, Cattermole found, required a team of specialists. The sacrist was responsible for providing and maintaining the bells; sacrists' rolls detail all the paraphernalia of bell-ringing – oil, rope, ironwork headstocks and so on.

At Norwich Cathedral the "campanarius" appears to have been a significant figure, responsible for organising and training the bell ringers, who, it seems probable, were paid.

Much of the medieval heritage of bell-ringing survived the Reformation, but notable casualties included the small sacring bells which had been rung at the elevation of the Host during the Mass.

Very few such bells survive, though Cattermole identified three significant examples in the west Norfolk churches of Thornham, Heacham and Snettisham, of which the bell at Thornham, still secured to a timber headstock by means of nailed bands, may date back to the 12th century.

Paul David Cattermole was born at New Buckenham, Norfolk, on August 15 1941 and educated at Norwich School, where he excelled in Latin. He left the school when his family moved to the Suffolk village of Beccles, where he attended Sir John Leman's School before moving on to Bromsgrove High School.

It was at Beccles that he first became interested in bell-ringing, inspired by Gilbert Thurlow, a precentor of Norwich Cathedral and church historian who published a history of Norwich bells in 1947 and taught Cattermole the techniques of bell-ringing at Beccles parish church.

Despite his interest in church architecture and languages, Cattermole read Mathematics at King's College London, and took a teaching diploma at Oxford. He then taught for 10 years at King's School, Worcester, before returning to Norwich in 1974 as head of Mathematics at Norwich School, where he remained until his retirement and co-authored a definitive history of the school, published in 1991.

Alongside his school duties, Cattermole was a regular bell-ringer at Tasburgh and Tharston churches, but he travelled widely round the country and completed more than 200 peals in Norfolk alone.

In 2007, however, he expressed disappointment when a new "ring of 10" rehung in the church of St Margaret's, King's Lynn, had to be silenced two hours into a celebratory peal when the metal bell frame was found to be insecurely anchored to the walls of the tower.

Cattermole, who had worked on the original plans for the refurbishment, complained that a new architect had changed the plans without his being consulted: "If I had been there I would have noticed that the wrong grout mix was being used." It was, he concluded, "a shambles".

Cattermole's other publications include The Church Bells of Norwich (2005), a comprehensive guide to the city's rich heritage of bells which includes a full account of the development of bell frames in towers. He also edited a 309-page history of Wymondham Abbey to mark its 900th anniversary in 2007.

The following obituary first appeared in the Times Educational Supplement on 21 August 2009

Paul Cattermole (1941-2009) was the Latin-speaking national authority on the church bells of Norfolk. He was a meticulously organised maths teacher. But for generations of pupils at Norwich School, Paul Cattermole was also renowned as the teacher who fainted at the sight of blood, and who lent would-be runaways his copy of the railway timetable.

Born in 1941, young Paul attended Norwich School, where he would later return as a teacher. As a pupil, he was demoted from the top maths set by the deputy head and told that he “would never be a mathematician”.

Not long afterwards, he was awarded a first-class degree in maths from King’s College, London. By this point, he was already fluent in medieval Latin. It was a skill which, as a third-year pupil, had won him a bar of fruit-and-nut chocolate in a classroom competition.

After graduating from King’s, he completed a diploma in education at Oxford. Then, in 1964, he was appointed maths teacher at the King’s School in Worcester. Ten years later, he returned to his alma mater as head of maths - a neat piece of one-upmanship on his erstwhile critic, who was still deputy head.

Dr Cattermole was determined to prove to pupils that maths could be a source of excitement and adventure. So he spent lessons meandering through a range of topics, with little regard for the syllabus. But when his pupils sat down for public exams, they found that, somehow, all the topics they needed had been covered.

For all his rambling teaching style, Dr Cattermole was meticulously organised and forward-thinking. This was reflected in the compelling arguments he put forward when promoting the interests of his subject. But he was always the perfect gentleman: dignified in victory and gallant in defeat.

His interest in teaching was not purely academic: he was also involved in the pastoral life of the school. One of his first jobs was to break up surreptitious Friday-night sorties to the local chippie. And he was tasked with putting an end to the traditional Saturday practice of throwing water balloons at passing tourists.

He regularly oversaw Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, accompanying boys to the Western Isles of Scotland. These trips were imbued with the same sense of haphazard adventure that characterised his lessons. On one occasion, pupils had arranged to take aerial photographs, using a camera attached to a large kite. But the kite string broke and the kite wrapped itself around a group of power cables. Fearing the response of irate natives deprived of power on a Sunday afternoon, Dr Cattermole refused to let the boy appeal to the police for help in retrieving the kite.

Another time, a pupil turned up at his door and said he would be running away. Dr Cattermole responded in the only way he could think: he lent the boy a railway timetable so that he could plan his journey.

The one part of pastoral life he did not relish was tending pupils’ injuries. He had a pathological dislike of blood, and often fainted after patching up a wound.

His skills as a polymath were renowned in school and out: he was known to plough through old manuscripts as others might read novels. In his spare time he researched the definitive account of Norwich School, published in 1991.

He had learnt to ring church bells as a child. In adulthood, he embarked on a PhD in campanology. This thesis led to a range of publications, including Church Bells and Bell-Ringing: a Norwich Profile (1990). And in 2005 he published The Church Bells of Norwich, a comprehensive guide to bell-ringing in the city.

In later years, Dr Cattermole worked as official archivist to Wymondham Abbey, in Norfolk, and as adviser on bells to the Norwich diocese. He retired from Norwich School in 2003.

The following obituary by Michael Pollitt first appeared in the Eastern Daily Press on 6 August 2009

One of the most highly respected authorities on Norfolk's church bells and an inspirational teacher at Norwich School for 29 years, Paul Cattermole, has died aged 68. Norfolk-born Dr Cattermole, who was official archivist to Wymondham Abbey, was adviser to the Norwich diocese on bells.

His research was meticulous, as befits a man who gained a first degree in mathematics and then a doctorate in history. His thesis spawned many of his publications, including Church Bells and Bell-Ringing - a Norfolk Profile. When published in 1990, after he had visited 400 Norwich churches, it was the first major reference volume since 1874.

A fluent speaker of medieval Latin, he spent five years of research in a labour of love: The Church Bells of Norwich, published in 2005. It was the most comprehensive guide to bellringing and the city's rich heritage of bells for more than half a century. Listing every bell in Norwich churches, including some dating from 1350, he devoted a lengthy chapter in the 284-page book to an often-neglected subject: bell-frames in towers.

A native of New Buckenham, he learned to ring at Beccles, having been encouraged by a clerical historian, Gilbert Thurlow, precentor of the cathedral, who wrote a history of Norwich bells in 1947. Although he remained loyal to Tasburgh and Tharston, where he was a regular ringer, he also rang bells at many other churches and completed more than 200 peals in Norfolk. While an accomplished peal ringer, he was renowned for his enthusiasm, patience and devotion to teaching change-ringing to generations.

He obtained a diploma in education at Oxford, which included teaching practice at Gresham's, Holt. Then he taught at the King's School, Worcester, for 10 years from 1964, where a pupil included future South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon. He returned to Norwich as head of mathematics, where he was also co-author of a history of Norwich School, published in 1991.

On his retirement in 2003, the school magazine noted: “Life was never dull when Paul was in charge of the maths department. Maths was real, maths was exciting, maths had nothing to do with textbooks.”

When Dr Cattermole's authoritative book was published to mark the 900th anniversary of Wymondham Abbey, Mr Bacon told the launch party: “It was Paul who taught me all those years ago that if you're going to do something you should do it as well as possible.” Dr Cattermole edited a 309-page book with 19 contributors that charted the abbey's beginnings as a Benedictine priory in 1107 to its dissolution in 1538 and the restoration in 1902. Canon Christopher Davies said that Dr Cattermole had single-handedly catalogued the complex archive material at Wymondham, which would be of great value to historians.

There is also a tribute to Paul Cattermole on the Norwich School website, with links to a profile of Dr Cattermole written on the occasion of his retirement and published in the 2003 Norvicensian magazine.