Historically, a bell would be rung on three occasions around the time of a death. The first was the "passing bell" to warn of impending death, followed by the death knell which was the ringing of a bell immediately after the death, and the last was the "lych bell", or "corpse bell" which was rung at the funeral as the procession approached the church.^[1] This latter is closest to what is known today as the Funeral toll.

Today, customs vary regarding when and for how long the bell tolls at a funeral.

In churches with full-circle English bells, for commemorative services such as funerals, memorial services and Remembrance Sunday, the bells are rung half-muffled instead with a leather pad on one side of the clapper in call changes or method ringing. Very rarely are they rung fully-muffled with pads both sides. This can often be a quarter peal or peal – the latter lasting three hours.

Big Ben, the bell in the Elizabeth Tower in London, has, since 1910, been tolled at the funeral of a British sovereign, the number of strokes equalling the number of years of the sovereign's life.

• Dead bell
• Death knell
• Ring of bells
• For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (quoting John Donne)
• The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers

• Video of English church bells being rung half-muffled, and then the tenor bell being tolled for a WW1 Roll of Honour in 2016 [1]

• Stahlschmidt J.C.L: The Church Bells of Kent: Their inscriptions, founders, uses and traditions, p. 126. Elliot Stock, 1887.^{[ISBN missing]}
• H B Walters, The Church Bells of England. Published 1912 and republished 1977 by Oxford University Press.^{[ISBN missing]}
• The Church Bells of Kent
• Bells and Mourning
• Funeral Order Of Service Painting