One of our bell ringers, Michelle Stephenson, recently celebrated her 50th birthday on 9th January 2026.
At this time we also realised that she was just about ready to attempt her first peal.
Although apprehensive about ringing continuously for three hours, Michelle agreed to give it a go as it was an opportunity not to be missed. So, on 8th February 2026, a full peal on the ten bells of St Andrew’s was successfully completed to celebrate Michelle’s 50th.
Very well done Michelle and thanks to all who took part in this occasion.
Full details are shown below with a photograph of the band.
Essex Association
Hornchurch, Essex
St Andrew
Sunday, 8 February 2026 in 3h 20min
5039 Grandsire Caters
Composed by George F Williams
1 Michelle A Stephenson
2 Helen J Carter
3 Clara M Waller
4 Marianne R Hayward
5 Lucas J Owen
6 John M Church
7 William J Stungo
8 Roderic K Bickerton
9 Clive J Stephenson (C)
10 James P Riley
Rung to celebrate the recent 50th birthday of Michelle Stephenson and 70th birthday of Andrew Barham.
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:
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:
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.
