A variety of chime melodies exist, many associated with a particular location or bell tower that originated or popularized them.
[2] An 8th-century Archbishop of York gave his priests instructions to sound church bells at certain times, and by the 10th century Saint Dunstan had written an extensive guide to bell-ringing to mark the canonical hours.
[3](p 13) Henry Beauchamp Walters' Church Bells of England features an entire chapter devoted to the regional variation in what bells were rung, how often, and what events they signaled throughout medieval England.
[4] Clock towers that chimed on the hour appeared in Italy by the 13th century.
[3](p 173) They were common enough by the 15th century that, in 1463, Englishman John Baret willed funds to the sexton of St. Mary's Church so that he would "keep the clock, take heed to the chimes, [and] wind up the pegs and the plummets as often as need".