Tolling for Prince Philip

Tolling for Prince Philip

At about 5pm today (9th April), churches were tolling a bell to mark the death of Prince Philip.Half-muffled (so every other blow sounded like an echo), the tenor bell in Audlem tolled the Nine Tailors, traditionally used to announce the death and age of a man, woman or child:

• 9 blows to signal that a man has died (it would be 6 for a woman, 3 for a child)
• 99 blows, one for each year of Prince Philip's life
• 9 blows again.

"Tailors" is an old form of "tellers": the Nine Tailors tell the number of years of the deceased's life.