Bell Ringers’ September Coach Outing

Ringing Outings

The bell ringers’ autumn coach outing took 40 of us to Hertfordshire for the morning and Bedfordshire for the afternoon.

We started in Stevenage, the first of England’s ‘New Towns’ with the church a long way from the town centre. The church had excellent facilities and we were provided with refreshments throughout our visit. The bells here were easy to ring and everyone rang well from Call Changes to Bristol Major.

Our next stop in Baldock coincided with the annual ‘Balstock’ street festival to entertain our non-ringing friends. Here the bells were heavy and more difficult but our young ringers Charles, James Dunhill and James Riley enjoyed the challenge of the tenor to Grandsire Triples and Stedman Triples.

Our lunch venue in Henlow was opposite the church and aptly named ‘The Five Bells’; non-ringers could take their time whilst the ringers went off to ring.

At Clifton we enjoyed another pleasant and easy-going set of bells before our final stop in the market town of Biggleswade. These are a lovely ring of ten bells where we were able to ring Stedman Caters and Little Bob Royal.

Our younger ringers were able to ring well here with Jamie Slack ringing the treble to Bob Caters and Ellen Hayward the treble to Grandsire Caters; both for the first time. The photos below show both Jamie and Ellen outside the church at Henlow along with their parents and other ringers.

Our thanks must go to organisers John Church and Jonathan Slack for a well-planned day with excellent food, ringing and company from our members and friends.

Bells Rung for VJ Day 80th Anniversary

Commemorations, Quarter Peals

80 years ago, Victory Over Japan (VJ) Day marked the surrender of Japanese forces, which essentially ended the Second World War.

On Friday 15th August 2025, the 80th anniversary of VJ Day was commemorated at St Andrew’s with a special ringing of the bells at 6.30pm.

This was part of a national event with bell ringers across the country ringing together at the same time.

We had 10 ringers taking part and one piece of ringing is listed below:

Hornchurch, Essex

St Andrew

Friday, 15 August 2025

Rounds and Call Changes on 10

Roller-coaster

1 Michelle Stephenson (C)

2 Valerie Swain

3 Angela Harvey

4 Adam Carpenter

5 Charles Page

6 Kim Mullan

7 Clive Stephenson

8 James Riley

9 Gavin Carpenter

10 Mark Lendon

Rung to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of VJ Day.

Earlier in the day, a quarter peal was also rung to mark the occasion:

Hornchurch, Essex

St Andrew

Friday, 15 August 2025

1260 Plain Bob Minor

1 James P Riley

2 John M Church

3 Carys E Hayward

4 Helen J Carter

5 Marianne R Hayward

6 Clive J Stephenson (C)

Rung to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of VJ Day.

The photo shows the ringers taking part in the quarter peal.

Image of six ringers outside the entrance to St Andrew's Church

Hornchurch Bell Ringers Finish 3rd

Competitions, Essex Association,

On Saturday 12th July, St Andrew’s bell ringers took part in the Essex Association striking competition finals at Sandon, near Chelmsford.

There were ten teams from all over Essex taking part and the standard of ringing was very high as it is every year.

Each team rang 240 changes of their chosen method which took about seven minutes. We were the first to ring and were pleased with our performance containing very few errors. The judges commented later that we ‘made a confident start’ and ‘set the tone for the day.’

We were delighted to finish in third place which is our best achievement in this event for about 30 years.

Our relatively inexperienced team rang as follows:

Marianne Hayward – Treble

Carys Hayward  – 2

Michelle Stephenson – 3

Nick Allen – 4

Clive Stephenson – 5

Mark Lendon – Tenor

Congratulations to all our ringers especially Carys Hayward who took part in this competition for the very first time, aged 15.

The photograph below shows our ringers in the order they rang.

Image of the six ringers outside the church.

Bell Ringing for the 80th Anniversary of VE Day

Commemorations, Peals, Quarter Peals, ,

Thursday 8th May 2025 was the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day (VE Day). Hitler had already committed suicide and the German forces surrendered on 7th May 1945 after nearly six years of war. This led to peace in Europe and many people took to the streets to erect British flags and light bonfires. Winston Churchill declared 8th May 1945 a national holiday. Many hosted street parties and a crowd of 100,000 people gathered outside Buckingham Palace and The Mall.

During the war, bell ringing was banned from June 1940, with bells only to be rung in the event of a German invasion. Churchill did however authorise ringing after the El Alamein victory in 1942 and it was allowed on Christmas Day that year. The ban was lifted in 1943 and there were enough bell ringers to ring on VE Day 1945.This tradition has continued over the years with all major milestones celebrated with the ringing of bells. The 80th anniversary, however, was the last major milestone where a number of WW2 veterans were still alive to share their memories. This gave significant importance to the occasion and at St Andrew’s we joined other ringers around the country to ring the bells on 8th May 2025 at 6.30pm.

The photograph shows the bell ringers that took part in the national event.

The occasion was also marked with a quarter peal on 8th May and a full three-hour peal on 9th May, both shown below:

Hornchurch, Essex

St Andrew

Thursday, 8 May 2025

1260 Plain Bob Doubles

1 James P Riley

2 Dennis Ellisdon

3 Alwyn Brock

4 John M Church

5 Clive J Stephenson (C)

6 Mark E Lendon

Rung to mark the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, clearly remembered by Dennis Ellisdon who was a young boy at the time.

Essex Association

Hornchurch, Essex

St Andrew

Friday, 9 May 2025 in 3h 10 (18–0–0 in E♭)

5040 Plain Bob Royal

Composed by David Heighton

1 Jon Waters

2 Helen J Carter

3 William J Stungo

4 Elle G Buttery

5 Roderic K Bickerton

6 M Louise Booth

7 Andrew P Barham

8 Hugo L Tracey

9 Lucas J Owen

10 Clive J Stephenson (C)

Rung to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of VE Day.

First Royal – 4.

First Royal in the method and 35th peal – 8.

Bell Ringers’ Spring Outing to Surrey

Ringing Outings,

On Saturday 3rd May, the sun was shining as our full coach of 51 ringers and friends left St Andrew’s for our journey to Surrey.

It took just over an hour to reach our first stop in Ashtead, an unspoilt town with plenty of interest for non-ringers. The 8 bells here were enjoyable to ring and well managed by our young ringers, Ellen & Jamie, as they did throughout the day. They rang well to Call Changes as did John & Michelle to Cambridge Major.

Our next church in Leatherhead had 10 bells in an attractive setting overlooking the downs.

Here it was Carys’ & James’ turn to ring well to a course of Bob Caters.

Our lunch stop in Thames Ditton was an old historical pub once used by King Henry VIII on his journey to Hampton Court Palace. We enjoyed our lunch in the sunshine on the banks of the River Thames.

After lunch we rang in the busy town of Esher close to Sandown racecourse before moving on to the 8 bells of Epsom Common. The church here is surrounded by woodland and Marianne & Paul rang some well-struck Superlative Major.

Our final stop in Epsom town centre had 10 bells and Tony organised some successful Stedman Caters for Alex, Jan & Michelle, all ringing it for the first time.

It was then a short drive for our evening meal at a venue overlooking Epsom racecourse and downs before our journey home after a full and successful day.

Lunch by the Thames
Ringers outside Leatherhead church

Bell Ringing for Christmas 2024

Peals,

As well as ringing on Christmas morning and at midnight on New Year’s Eve, the bell ringers had two extended rings in the build up to Christmas.

The first was a full peal the week before Christmas on 15th December. This took thre hours to complete with full details as follows:

Hornchurch, Essex

St Andrew

Sunday, 15 December 2024 in 3h

5056 Spliced Surprise Major (12m)

(576 Superlative; 448 Bristol; 384 Aldenham,

Ashtead, Cambridge, Cassiobury, Lincolnshire,

London, Pudsey, Rutland, Uxbridge, Yorkshire;)

Arranged from M.C.W. Sherwood

1 Colin Friend

2 Helen J Carter

3 M Louise Booth

4 Anthony J Bloomfield

5 Adrian C Malton (C)

6 Jonathan R Slack

7 Clive J Stephenson

8 Matthew E Rayner

Rung for the Season of Advent.

First of Spliced S Major – 2.

Most methods – 6, 7.

The second extended piece of ringing was a date touch on Christmas Eve. This was 2024 changes to celebrate Christmas 2024 and took about one hour and 15 minutes to complete. Full details as follows:

Hornchurch, Essex

St Andrew

Tuesday, 24 December 2024

2024 Spliced Plain Major (2m)

(8 Little Bob; 2016 Plain Bob)

Composed by Donald F Morrison

1 Julie A Bloomfield

2 Michelle A Stephenson

3 Anthony J Bloomfield

4 John M Church

5 William J Stungo

6 Andrew P Barham

7 Roderic K Bickerton

8 Clive J Stephenson (C)

Rung for Christmas 2024.

Longest length – 2.

Ladies Guild of Change Ringers Visit St Andrew’s

Visiting Bands

The Ladies Guild is a national organisation whose aim is to support and encourage all women bell ringers to reach their full potential. Much of the country is covered by eight Districts, each of which arranges a programme of ringing activites at towers in their area. Several members of the Eastern Division of the Ladies Guild came to St Andrew’s for their final ring of the year and were joined by some of our own bellringers for an enjoyable two-hour ring on the morning of Saturday 16 November 2024.

The photo shows the lady ringers in the ringing gallery.

Bell Ringing Prize on Promotion Sunday 2024

Learners, New Ringers, Quarter Peals,

The achievements of St Andrew’s bell ringers are recognised when they have rung their first quarter peal.

During the past year, young bell ringer Carys Hayward successfully completed her first quarter peal at St Andrew’s in June.

She rang continuously for 45 minutes following a set pattern (method) whilst her mother (Marianne) conducted the changes.

Congratulations to Carys who received her award from Ken during the morning service on 29th September.

Carys with her bell ringing award

Bell Ringers Win Call Change Competition

Competitions,

On Saturday 21st September 2024, St Andrew’s bell ringers entered a team in the District Call Change Competition at Leytonstone church.

Each team of six ringers had three minutes practise to get used to a different set of bells.

This was followed by five to eight minutes of competition ringing. The order of the bells was changed regularly and the accuracy of the striking assessed by two judges sitting in the churchyard.

Our team rang very well and was placed first out of the six teams that took part.

 Ethan receives the trophy from the judges
The winning team of Clive, Jane, Michelle,
James, Ethan & Mark outside Leytonstone church

Bell Ringers’ Autumn Outing to Suffolk

Uncategorized

Saturday 14th September 2024 was a warm and sunny day as the bell ringers headed to Suffolk for our second coach outing of the year.

After a drive of just over an hour, we arrived in Bures, a village with the River Stour defining the border between Essex and Suffolk. Here the bells are heavy and hung in an anti-clockwise circle but we rang well, finishing with Lincolnshire Surprise Major.

Our next stop was for four hours in Sudbury. This allowed ample time for non-ringers to look round whilst the ringers could ring at two churches with lunch in-between.

The first church (St Gregory) has 8 bells that have been recently restored and rehung by Taylor’s Bell Foundry in 2022. The project cost £60,000 and was spearheaded by Pauline Brown, a previous Hornchurch ringer. This was one of the best rings of the day. We rang a touch of Stedman Triples and a course of Bob Major with James and Carys on the treble and 2nd respectively.

The second church in Sudbury (All Saints) were heavy and difficult to ring. It took a while to get used to the bells but we did manage a couple of methods and people commented how nice the bells sounded.

After Sudbury, the non-ringers were dropped in Lavenham for two hours whilst the ringers visited Edwardstone before returning to Lavenham.

Edwardstone were an easy-going ring of 6 bells with the ringing successfully organised by Marianne. Jamie and Ellen rang the 2nd to some well struck Call Changes whilst the more experienced ringers rang Cambridge Minor.

Lavenham church stands on the top of a hill and with a tower 138 feet high, lays claim to being the highest village church tower in Britain. It is visible from miles around.

The bells are also special; heavy but quite easy to ring with a beautiful sound. This enabled our less experienced ringers to enjoy their best ring of the day which was well organised by Tony Bloomfield, giving everyone a good ring.

A short drive to our evening meal venue made a great end to the day with excellent food and company.

Our thanks must go to John and Jonathan for a very well organised day.

 Andrew and Clive pulling up the tenor at All Saints, Sudbury
Outside Lavenham Church
Organisers John and Jonathan outside Edwardstone, with Jamie