St-Michael-le-Belfrey
St.Michael-le-Belfrey is the largest parish church in York. (The Cathedral itself is not of course a parish church). St. Michael's is believed to be of ancient origin but the present structure dates only from the 16th century. It takes its name perhaps from an earlier time when it had a belfry, or perhaps from its nearness to a former belfry attached to the minster. The building itself is a very fine one but in want of reparation.
It is the bells of St. Michael-le-Belfrey that members of the Learned Society of York Magicians hear as they stand in York Minster awaiting Gilbert Norrell's first act of magic. We are told the bells are merely chiming the half-hour, but because of the apprehensions of the moment they seem to the assembled magicians to have "an odd, far-away sound" which awakens disagreeable associations. (The gentlemen of the Society, being well-versed in the history of magic, are of course aware that historically sinister supernatural acts, such as abductions by fairies, were in former times often accompanied by the ringing of a distant, ghostly bell[3].)