On Saturday 18th May 2024, 45 ringers and friends from St Andrew’s enjoyed a coach trip to North Sussex and Surrey.
Our first stop was a drive of 1.5 hours to the town of East Grinstead. Here the ringers madea nice sound on all 12 bells whilst the non –ringers visited the museum next door dedicated to wartime plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe.
At our next stop, Balcombe, a lighter ring of 8 bells allowed some more advanced ringing in a pretty and recently restored church.
Our lunch stop at Warnham was a pub conveniently opposite the church in a picturesque setting.
Here the non-ringers had an extended lunch whilst listening to the recently augmented ring of 10.
In the afternoon we visited an anti-clockwise ring in Rudgwick before our final stop at Cranleigh; arguably the nicest sounding bells of the day.
For our dinner in Cranleigh we had a pub restaurant to ourselves with excellent food and service before our pleasant journey home.
The D-Day operation of June 6th, 1944 was the largest invasion in history which would ultimately defeat Nazi Germany and end the Second World War.
On the 80th anniversary of this day, it was more than fitting that the St Andrew’s bell ringers should ring out to mark the occasion.
Former Hornchurch Ringing Master Frank Gant was involved in the Normandy landings of 1944.
On D-Day, Frank was in command of a tank landing craft which, on approaching the beach in Normandy, lost its rudder on an underwater obstruction. He managed to reach the beach, however, offload the tanks and return to England without a rudder.
He steered the boat by varying the speeds of the twin propellers and received official recognition for this remarkable feat.
Today’s bell ringers met at 9.30am on Thursday 6th June to ring before and after the Communion Service where Mark gave thanks for our country’s role in the liberation of Western Europe.
Our ringing included a quarter peal shown in detail below along with the ringers that took part:
On Sunday 4th February 2024, the bell ringers celebrated the licensing of Marianne Hayward as Associate Priest with a quarter peal in the evening before choral evensong.
Marianne was able to ring in the quarter peal as shown in the summary below:
During the morning service on 9th March, Revd Ken Wyle blessed our new peal board, gave thanks for the work of the bell ringers and prayed for their continued service within the church.
Many of the peals rung at St Andrew’s have been for significant Royal occasions and there are a number of peal boards already in the tower.
For example, there are peal boards celebrating the Silver Wedding Anniversary of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (who we knew as the Queen Mother) in 1948 and also one for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2002.
Our most recent peal board is a double peal board celebrating two very special event’s in our country’s recent history side-by-side on the same board.
The first peal commemorates our late monarch, Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee (70 years on the throne) in 2022 and next to that is the recent Coronation peal of King Charles III in 2023.
We decided to get this beautiful, hand-made board not only because they were such special occasions but also because we were given a very generous donation in memory of one of our former ringers, Andrew Salisbury; and his name is remembered on the board.
Andy Salisbury was taught to ring by former Ringing Master, Frank Gant, and he rang at St Andrew’s from 1947 to 1965 before moving to Norwich to further his teaching career. Andy’s brother, Donald,also rang at Hornchurch and Andy was also a member of the William of Wykeham Guild where he made a life-long friendship with former PCC member, Dicky Bird, who wishes to be remembered along with Andy.
The peal board was designed and constructed by Barbara Caswell. Barbara moved to England from America and started her own design business in Haselmere, Surrey, whilst simultaneously learning to ring at her local church. She then combined her design skills with her bell ringing hobby and has produced peal boards for a number of churches in London and Southern England. The crown on our peal board was the crown used on the Olympic (2012) post boxes which Barbara sourced from the internet.
We are very grateful for the donation given for this peal board and delighted that Andrew’s son, Martin, and daughter-in-law, Tracey, were able to join us for the blessing on 9th March.
Clive, Revd Ken, Martin & Tracey Salisbury with the board.Revd Ken blessing the board during the service.
On Saturday 16th September 2023, our coach of 47 bell ringers and friends left St Andrew’s for our autumn outing to Suffolk.
The day was organised by John Church helped by Jonathan Slack who learnt to ring in Suffolk as a child.
Our first stop was the pretty village of Boxford where we were welcomed with coffee and cake in the church. The bells here were heavy and quite difficult but we managed to ring Stedman, Cambridge and Rutland.
Our lunch stop was Hadleigh, another heavy ring of 8 bells with the tenor just over a ton. One of our ringers, James Riley, has family in Hadleigh and they were able to watch and listen to him ring the tenor to Grandsire Triples.
Following our excellent lunch, we travelled to Buxhall, a newly augmented ring of 8 bells; followed by Great Finborough, an easy going ring of 6 bells in a beautiful country setting.
Our final stop of the day was Stowmarket where we were provided with tea and cakes in the church café. We were privileged to be the first visiting band to ring on the improved and re-tuned bells which have just been augmented from 8 to 10. Jamie Slack was able to ring with his Granddad who rings in Suffolk and Carys Hayward rang Plain Hunt on 9 for the first time. The more experienced ringers rang Stedman Caters and Little Bob Royal.
Everyone enjoyed the day and our thanks go to John and Jonathan for all their hard work.
Carys Hayward at Hadleigh with Mum and sister
Experienced ringers at Stowmarket
Jamie Slack at Stowmarket with Father Jonathan (far right) and John Church (far left)
On Sunday 10th September 2023, the commitment and achievements of three of our bell ringers was recognised during the morning family service.
Mark Lendon, Valerie Swain and James Riley have all achieved ringing their first quarter peal during the past year. This means ringing continuously for about 45 minutes and involves considerable physical and mental effort.
Mark returned to ringing after the pandemic having learnt to ring as a youngster. He has rung several quarter peals in the past year. Val learnt to ring in 2018 For ‘Ringing Remembers’ and has rung regularly ever since including two quarter peals. James learnt to ring in 2022 and has now rung two quarter peals in little over a year.
Congratulations to all three ringers shown in the photo below with our vicar Ken Wylie and ringing master Clive Stephenson.
