During the morning service on 9^th 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 9^th March.