St. Andrew's Hornchurch Guild of Change Ringers

Welcome to the home of the Hornchurch Bell Ringers. Please take a look around to find out more about the art of bellringing and what the ringers get up to at St. Andrew's.

Learn to Ring

Learn to Ring

Interested in learning to ring church bells? All ages and welcome.

Read More

The Bells

The Bells

St. Andrew's Church has 10 bells made from 1779 to 2014.

Read More

The Church

The Church

On the exterior east end of the Church a bull's head that gives the town its name can be seen.

Read More

Bell Ringers Spring Outing

Ringing Outings

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.

A very successful and enjoyable day for all.

Bell Ringers outside Cranleigh Church

Bell Ringing For The 80th Anniversary of D-Day

Church, Commemorations, Quarter Peals,

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:

Hornchurch, Essex

St Andrew

Thursday, 6 June 2024

1260 Plain Bob Doubles

1 James P Riley

2 Michael J Warren

3 Paul T Crick

4 John M Church

5 Clive J Stephenson (C)

6 Mark E Lendon

Rung to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Remembering Frank Gant, former Hornchurch Ringing Master, who took part in the D-Day landings.

First quarter away from cover – 1.

St Andrew’s Ringers on D-Day

70th Birthday Celebrations for Mark

Birthdays, Quarter Peals,

On Friday 8th March 2024, Mark Lendon celebrated his 70th birthday.

To honour the occasion, a team of six bell ringers (including Mark) met at St Andrew’sto ring a celebratory quarter peal:

Hornchurch, Essex

St Andrew

Friday, 8 March 2024

1260 Plain Bob Doubles

1 Valerie A Swain

2 Ethan J Musham

3 Michael J Warren

4 John M Church

5 Clive J Stephenson (C)

6 Mark E Lendon

Rung to celebrate the 70th birthday of Mark Lendon on this day.

The following day a gathering of family and friends continued the celebrations in St Andrew’s Hall where Mark arranged a delicious buffet.

Revd Ken spoke of Mark’s commitment to the church (including bell ringing) and we drank a toast to Mark and his loving family.

Mark and Carol celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary later this year.

The team of bell ringers with Mark (far right)

Traditional Christmas Ringing at St Andrew’s

Peals

For more than 60 years, a full 3 hour peal has been attempted at St Andrew’s on Christmas Eve (or as close to Christmas as possible).

2023 was no exception and the bells were rung continuously for 3 hours and 7 minutes to celebrate the Christmas Festival:

Essex Association

Hornchurch, Essex

St Andrew

Saturday, 23 December 2023 in 3h 7min

5040 Spliced Major (2m)

(3600 Plain Bob; 1440 Cambridge Surprise)

Composed by: R. Baldwin

1 M Louise Booth

2 Marianne R Hayward

3 William M Beech

4 Helen J Carter

5 Jonathan R Slack

6 Andrew P Barham

7 Colin Friend

8 Clive J Stephenson (C)

Rung for the Festival of Christmas.

Also in thanksgiving for the life of James A Bullock formerly of Dagenham who passed away earlier this week, 6 months short of his 100th birthday.

Bell Ringers Win Call Change Competition

Competitions,

On Saturday 23rd September 2023, our team of 6 bell ringers travelled to Loughton church for the annual district call change competition.

We were drawn to ring first and, after some initial nerves, settled into about 5 minutes ofconfident ringing.

There were 4 other teams, all of us judged on the evenness of our ringing whilst the conductor changed the order of the bells.

At the end of the competition, Hornchurch were declared the winning team, having scored the fewest number of faults (errors).

The full results were as follows:

  • 5th place: Walthamstow, St Mary: 62.5 faults
  • 4th place: Walthamstow, St Saviour: 53 faults
  • 3rd place: Loughton: 49 faults
  • 2nd place: Epping: 45.5 faults
  • 1st place: Hornchurch: 16.5 faults

Well done to all those who took part.

The winning team: Clive Stephenson, Jane Harper, Michelle Stephenson, Ethan Musham, Mark Lendon and James Riley
Jane collects the winning trophy

Bell Ringers’ Outing to Suffolk 2023

Ringing Outings,

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)

Bell Ringing Awards for First Quarter Peals

Uncategorized

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.

Bell Ringers Striking Competition Success

Competitions,

On Saturday 10th June 2023, St Andrew’s bell ringers entered a team into the SW Essex Striking Competition heats at Dagenham.

We rang for about seven or eight minutes and were judged on the accuracy of our ringing.

We rang well and finished in 2nd place behind West Ham but ahead of Walthamstow, St Mary who came 3rd.

Congratulations to our band of ringers, who are shown in the photograph below.

Those taking part were (L-R in the photograph):

  1. Mark Lendon
  2. Julie Bloomfield
  3. Michelle Stephenson
  4. Ethan Musham
  5. Clive Stephenson
  6. James Riley

                 

First Quarter Peal for James After Just One Year

Uncategorized,

Hornchurch bell ringer James Riley first expressed an interest in learning to ring in May 2022, just before the Platinum Jubilee of our late Queen.

He was directed to St Andrew’s tower and had his first introduction to bell handling on 31st May 2022.

He has attended regularly and made determined progress ever since. He now rings on Sunday mornings and was part of the team that rang for the Coronation of King Charles III.

Furthermore, on 31st May 2023, James rang his first quarter peal exactly one year since his first bell ringing lesson.

Although a bit nervous, James rang exceptionally well for 45 minutes to complete this fantastic achievement.

Well done James!

The quarter peal was a celebration of the wedding of fellow bell ringer Charles Page to Linda Hardwidge on 29th May 2023 at St Laurence Church in Upminster where James also attends.

Full details of the quarter peal are as follows:

Hornchurch, Essex

St Andrew

Wednesday, 31 May 2023

1260 Plain Bob Doubles

1 Mark E Lendon

2 John M Church

3 Philip Petchey

4 Hayden R Musham

5 Clive J Stephenson (C)

6 James P Riley

Rung to celebrate the wedding of Charles and Linda Page on 29th May.

First quarter for tenor ringer on the one year anniversary of his first bell ringing lesson.

The team of bell ringers with James far right and Charles and Linda Page in the front.