The church's website tells us about the bells:
The carillon and bells of the Collegiate Church of St Mary's Warwick.
It's noon on Monday and Home Sweet Home chimes out from the bells. The same tune was heard at 9 o'clock and is repeated every 3 hours through daytime. This tune is played on the 10 bells, hung about two thirds of the way up the tower. The bells range in weight from 5 cwt to 25 cwt (250kg to 1,250kg) and are tuned in D. The tunes are played using the bells as a carillon. This is operated by an electric powered pegged drum which triggers hammers against the sides of the bells. The carillon sounds a different tune for each day of the week. The Eoster Hymn is played on Sundays followed by Home Sweet Home. Tuesday hears Thaxted (I vow to thee my country) and then comes the Blue Bells of Scotland. Minstrel Boy chimes out on Thursday followed by the Warwickshire Lads and Lasses and Saturday hears the Last Rose of Summer.
For several months in 2013 the tunes were silent awaiting a repair which was made possible by a kind donation from John and Linda Edwards, Warwick residents. Previous silences occurred around 1901 when there was major restoration work to the bells and again in 1925 when repairs were needed to make the tower safe. After WW2 it was said the chimes never really got going again. The original apparatus was made by Worton of Birmingham and installed in 1783. It was described as a remarkable piece of craftsmanship but earned the status of a "museum piece" at the end of WW2. In the late 1940s John H Tibbits and P J Lees (organist at St Nicholas, Warwick) initiated a campaign to restore the chimes with modern apparatus. The cause was taken up by the Mayor of Warwick, Councillor T T Bromwich, who formed a committee and launched an appeal for the costs of £1,450. The Vicar, Joseph McCulloch, was quoted in the local press saying "the town will be whole-heartedly in favour of this venture of faith" and when the funds were raised said "this remarkable achievement has been made possible by the generosity of the citizens of Warwick."
But as the chimes were being made ready to ring out again in May 1952 there was some controversy. P J Lees informed the Committee that the original tunes had included God Save the Queen, Over the water to Charlie, There's no luck about the house, and Life let us cherish. He recommended that these should not be reintroduced but the ones heard before the war restored. The contractors, Smiths of Derby, had their own ideas proposing a list including Jerusalem but this was summarily dismissed as was also a suggestion that two bells could be struck simultaneously. The Committee agreed that the tunes Jenny Jones (a Welsh air) and March in Scipio which had been heard before the war should be replaced with Thaxted and Warwickshire Lads and Lasses. This latter tune was the regimental march of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Apparently it had a number of variations and the Committee, anxious that the march should be correctly played, consulted a former Bandmaster of the regiment who arranged a suitable scoring for the bells. Despite these efforts by the Committee about the tunes E George Tibbits and Mary L Tibbits wrote to the Warwick Advertiser lamenting that the old clockwork apparatus had not been repaired and that the Jenny Jones tune had been discarded.
There were bells in St Mary's before the carillon was installed. Five bells were hung in the 16th century and by the mid-17th century these had been augmented to a ring of 8. All the bells were destroyed in the 1694 Great Fire of Warwick. At the start of the 18tn century eight new bells were cast by Abraham Rudhall, a Gloucester bell founder, and very soon these were augmented to a ring of 10. Thomas Mears, a bell founder working at the Whitechapel Foundry, then recast the tenor bell in 1814. (This London foundry established in 1570 continues to make bells and claims to be the oldest manufacturing company in the country.) The ring was completely overhauled in 1901 by John Taylor (a Loughbough bell foundry also still in operation) and six of the bells were recast. The current ring of 10 contains these 6 Taylor bells, three of Rudhall's bells from 1701, and the 25cwt tenor bell is the one recast by Thomas Mears in 1814.
Apart from the carillon the bells are also used for ringing before Sunday services and on other occasions including weddings. When the bells are raised into an upright position for change ringing it is necessary to disable the tunes and chimes. The art of change ringing dates from the 16th century and involves continuously moving bells up and down the ringing order using a defined sequence or "method." Typical methods rung on these bells are Grandsire, Stedman, Cambridge and Yorkshire. Peals are rung from time to time to commemorate royal occasions, civic events and other happenings. A peal consists of 5,000 or more continuous changes in the order of the bells and at St Mary's takes about 3V& hours; over 100 peals have been rung in the tower since the first was recorded in 1786. Visitors are always welcome in the ringing chamber either on Sundays or at the practice held every 1st and 3rd Wednesday evening of the month. The ringing chamber is about halfway up the tower and the ringers are happy to explain their art and can arrange for people to be taught how to handle a bell for change ringing.
The Britain Express website tells us about St Mary's Collegiate Church:
The historic church of St Mary was founded as a collegiate church (administered by a 'college' of a dean and canons) in 1123 by Roger de Newburgh, second Earl of Warwick. The style of Newburgh's church was decidedly Romanesque, with heavy, rounded pillars. The best surviving part of that Norman church is in the lovely crypt.
The early Norman church was rebuilt in the 14th century by Thomas Beauchamp, father and son, the first Beauchamp Earls of Warwick. The first Thomas Beauchamp financed his building of the chancel with money obtained from the ransom of a French archbishop. The chancel, vestries, and chapter house were rebuilt in delightful Gothic style, making of St Mary one of the most attractive town churches of its day. The alabaster memorial to Thomas, who died of the plague during the siege of Calais, and his wife Katherine lies in the chancel.
The Beauchamp Chapel
But the work of Thomas Beauchamp was about to be outdone by his descendant, Richard de Beauchamp (d.1439), who provided funds in his will for the creation of a chantry chapel in St Mary's. This, aptly dubbed The Beauchamp Chapel, is one of the great Gothic architectural achievements in England. The executors of Beauchamp's will spent over £2400, an enormous sum in those days, creating a masterpiece of Gothic style which took over 20 years to complete.
The chapel, which is dedicated to Our Lady, is composed of three bays, at the centre of which is the tomb of Richard Beauchamp, raised on a pedestal and surrounded by an iron fence. The effigy of Earl Richard is set upon a chest of Purbeck marble, with a canopy above, and latten (gilded in copper alloys) weeping figures below.
Beside the tomb of Earl Richard is that of Ambrose Dudley (d. 1590), whose effigy wears a gilded iron coronet, added in the 18th century. But the grandest tomb of all in the Beauchamp Chapel is that of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (d.1588), and his wife Lettice (d.1634). Dudley, the brother of Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth, and one of the most powerful men in the kingdom. His tomb is set into the north wall of the chapel, beneath a gilded canopy.
You may have heard of the Great Fire of London. Well, Warwick had its own Great Fire, in 1694. The blaze destroyed much of the old medieval town, and the nave and tower of St Mary's were lost. Sir Christopher Wren, architect of St Paul's in London, submitted a design for reconstruction of the church, but Wren's design was rejected in favour of one by Sir William Wilson of Sutton Coldfield. The most striking aspect of Wilson's design is the west tower, which stands 174 feet high, and, unusually, projects out into the road, with a arches on three sides to allow passage under the tower for foot traffic. The modern road skirts around the tower arches, but one can't help but feel a trifle exposed, pausing under the tower arch and seeing traffic bearing down on the opening in which you stand!
The church is Grade I listed with the entry at the Historic England website telling us:
Tower can be seen for many miles and is of high value in association with Northgate Street, also with Church Street, The Court House and adjoining buildings. Nave, transepts and tower rebuilt by Sir William Wilson in 1697-1704 after destruction in the great fire of 1694. Design supervised and perhaps modified by Sir Christopher Wren. This curious and interesting building retains much of the Gothic spirit although details and mouldings are Renaissance in character. Late C14 chancel. Norman crypt. Interior contains C18 organ case by Swarbrick and various effigies.
The Beauchamp Chapel (Lady Chapel to south of Chancel) is a very fine example of the Perpendicular style, built 1442-63 to contain the well known tomb and bronze effigy of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (died 1439). Further interesting features of the interior include, fan vaulting, richly carved stone figures etc at east end, wall painting (Last Judgement) at west end, C15 stained glass and other tombs of the Dudley family.