Inside the Maypole Bells workshop in Kent, with bell ropes, sallies and the ropemaking wheel

Bell ropes and chiming ropes for towers and mini-rings

Tower Bell Ropes, Chiming Ropes and Mini-Ring Ropes.

Maypole Bells manufacture bell ropes and chiming ropes for towers and mini-rings, with sallies in colours of your choice. We produce all the ropes for our own products, and can manufacture tower rope bottom ends with full size sallies.

All ropes are hand made on our own rope walk and the sally is combed and trimmed using traditional handheld tools. (Some variation in the finish may occur during the handmade process).

Technical details

Specifications on request

Every tower bell rope, chiming rope and mini-ring rope is made to order on our own ropewalk, and there are many variations in materials and measurements. Tell us about your tower or ring and Trevor will send you the full details for your ropes.

Call 07860 770535 or send us a message for details.

Church tower bell ropes with red, white and blue sallies in a ringing chamber

Made to Fit Your Tower

Many tower masters are more than capable of splicing a new bottom end to an existing top end.

If you would rather we took care of it, we can splice the new natural flax bottom end to any length of pre-stretched synthetic rope before it leaves our workshop, so it arrives ready to hang.

Try our interactive sally colour picker

Natural Flax Yarn

Natural flax offers great strength, fineness and durability, making it ideal for tower bell ropes. We source our flax from growers in Eastern Europe. As a natural fibre it reacts to moisture, so a rope may change length slightly or feel tighter when damp.

Merino Wool Sallies

We only use soft Merino blend natural wools, in a wide range of colours from King Cole. As an Authorised King Cole Retailer, we can also supply extra wool so you can knit matching attire or accessories for your ringers.

A Grip That Lasts

Merino wool is fed into each of the three strands as the rope is made, locking it in for a permanent, tight grip. Each strand can be one colour or any combination you like, and the soft wool gives a comfortable hold.

Sally colours

Your Colours, Your Way

Our standard Maypole Bells colours are below, but we love being innovative with sally designs and always welcome your personal choice.

Red (Scarlet)Green (Bottle Green)Blue (Royal Blue)

Inspired by Your Patron Saint

You may like to choose colours linked to the Patron Saint of your church. We are happy to research this for you as a free service. Here are two examples.

St Nicholas

Red (Scarlet)His favourite colour.
Blue (Petrol)St Nicholas is the Patron Saint of mariners.
GoldHe famously gave away his inheritance, with gold coins placed in socks and given as dowries.

St Dunstan

BlackRepresenting his skills as a metalsmith.
GoldRepresenting his skills as a metalsmith.
SilverSourced from a specialist supplier especially for this tower.

Some of the newest colours in the range include a coloured fleck, which may not show well on screen. Get in touch if you would like to see samples.

Totally customise your own sally, from our wools and yarns.

Try our interactive sally colour picker