Dennis Wubs from Bellingwolde is a bell sound collector. ‘It’s hard to put into words why I love the sound so much’

That does not mean that his passion for collecting has cooled down. He loves the sound that fills the air above villages and towns on Sunday mornings and at other times far too much for that.

Collector of chimes, how do you become one? “I fell in love with sound when I was a little child,” says 38-year-old Wubs. “I grew up in Onstwedde and a sexton there regularly allowed me to help ring the bell of his church. I loved doing that, and I also liked the sound.”

He never forgot those great adventures of his early childhood. As a teenager, there were a few years in which playing the organ played the leading role, but then the dormant love for the church bells ignited again. He started recording its sound, first in his region, with microphones and other equipment.

“And at a certain point, 20 years ago now, I was approached by the Stichting Oude Groninger Kerken. They made an inventory of their church bells and asked me if I wanted to record their sound. Well, of course I wanted that.”

Hours by bike through the province of Groningen

So came a time when he traveled the province, often by bicycle. “Because I didn’t have a driver’s license yet,” he looks back with satisfaction. “I was on the road for hours and of course not just on Sunday mornings, then it would have taken too long. Fortunately, sextons and other church administrators were willing to ring the bells at other times so that I could make recordings. I remember a day on the Hogeland. I had to cycle for three hours to get there, then went from church to church and returned in the evening in a huge thunderstorm.”

When that assignment was completed, he certainly did not stop making recordings. “A German preacher asked me to do something similar in the area just across the border with Groningen. I also said yes to that and so I visited that region very often.” He did more than that. He decided to share his recordings with others and posted them on a website www.youtube.com/denniswubs.

Cathedral in Münster

He still manages that site and has now acquired hundreds of recordings. “Because in recent years I have also visited the churches in the rest of the German border area. I have pretty much ‘had’ the entire west of Lower Saxony. I now also make video recordings of the bells if possible.” Then he tells in scents and colors about the Cathedral in Münster where he was able to view and listen to the bells up close. “Those recordings have been viewed many times on my website.”

Over the years he has not only become an expert on the sound of the bells but also on their history. He can talk endlessly about the many bells that were stolen and melted down by the Nazis during the Second World War. “That also happened to many bells in German churches. Fortunately, many survived the war. I also like the sound of those bells the most. It’s a fuller and ‘deeper’ sound.”

Advisor and organist

His knowledge is so extensive that he is regularly hired as a consultant for, for example, clock restorations. His great passion also brings in money. “I also work as an organist, I play in various churches.”

He has now recorded the sounds of at least 1,600 and perhaps more than 2,000 bells. “It’s an estimate, I don’t know exactly. Indeed, I have Groningen and the German border area almost complete. I haven’t listened to some of the bells yet, I still have to do that. It doesn’t stop there, although traveling further and further away to churches is time-consuming and expensive. But I will always remain a collector of church bells. It’s hard to put into words why I love the sound so much. Maybe it’s that memory of childhood, it’s hard to say. The fact is that the sound of church bells makes me happy.”