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.
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As bell ringers our central body encouraged us to ‘Ring for the King’ and on Saturday 6th May 2023, that is exactly what we did.
At St Andrew’s at 10.00am, 25 bell ringers gathered to celebrate this momentous occasion. Most of the ringers present could not remember the last coronation in 1953 and none were old enough to have rung for it.
Taking it in turns, we rang St Andrew’s bells for a full hour leading up to the Coronation service at Westminster Abbey at 11am. Everybody had the opportunity to ring from ‘Rounds to Kings’ which on ten bells would be changing from 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 to 9,7,5,3,1,2,4,6,8,10; a very musical combination.
We ended with 70 changes of Grandsire Triples, marking the 70 years between the coronations of Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III.
The photograph below shows some of the ringers that took part in the morning ringing.
In the afternoon, a different team assembled to ring a full peal of Grandsire Caters on all 10 bells. The peal lasted for more than 3 hours and was a fitting way to celebrate the new King’s Coronation.
Full details are shown below along with a photograph of the ringers taking part.
Rung following the Coronation of H M King Charles III and Queen Camilla at Westminster Abbey earlier this day.
First peal for 26 years – 10.
On Sunday 7th May, the bells were rung before both of our services with a Coronation theme.
In the evening, a quarter peal slightly earlier than usual allowed two of our bell ringing choristers (Ethan & Hayden Musham) to ring and sing for the Coronation Evensong; an outstanding contribution to the life of St Andrew’s.
The Coronation of King Charles III will take place on 6th May 2023. Anyone wishing to learn to ring bells for this occasion should get in touch using the Contact Us page.
2022 is the 70th anniversary of The Queen’s accession to the throne in 1952.
For the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, as many St Andrew’s bell ringers as possible chose to ring on Coronation Day which was Thursday 2nd June 2022.
Starting in rounds (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8), bells were quickly swapped over to produce a change known as ‘Queen’s’.
This change was repeated exactly 70 times to mark each year of The Queen’s long reign.
The ‘Queen’s’ change is the odd bells followed by the even bells (1,3,5,7,2,4,6,8). It is a musical change said to have been given it’s name after Queen Elizabeth I overheard this series of changes and commented how much she liked it.
The bell ringers who took part were:
Tony Ammerlaan
Jane Harper
Clive Stephenson
Adam Carpenter
Angela Harvey
John Stephenson
Gavin Carpenter
Mark Lendon
Margaret Waller
Eileen Drew
Chris Pain
Lisa Wilson
Tina Gornall
Pauline Murray
Lionel Woods
A video recording of some of the ringing can be found on YouTube:
On the following day, Friday 3rd June, a full peal was organised on the ten bells of St Andrew’s.
We started at 10am and rang for 3 hours and 16 minutes to coincide with the Service of Thanksgiving held at St Paul’s at 11.30am.
Congratulations to Hayden Musham one of our young bell ringers who rang the tenor to his first peal for this occasion.
St Andrew’s had five bells in 1552. These were recast into six bells in 1779 by the famous Whitechapel foundry (which sadly closed in 2017). Two more bells were added in 1901 to greet the 20th Century and another two in 2001 to give Hornchurch a 10-bell peal.
There are a number of peal boards on display in our ringing room which reflect various performances on 6, 8 and 10 bells over the centuries.
The oldest peal board is dated 17th March 1822, 200 years ago, when Hornchurch had 6 bells. It commemorates a ‘true and compleat peal’ of a method called Oxford Treble Bob Minor.
Today, a peal is recognised as 5000 changes or more which takes about 3 hours. In 1822, we think a ‘peal’ was 720 changes which is the maximum number of changes possible on 6 bells without repetition.
This would have taken about 30 minutes and was still a remarkable achievement of its time when change ringing was still in its infancy.
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of this oldest ‘peal’, our current team of bell ringers recently repeated the performance of 1822 on virtually the same six bells (not quite because the fifth of the six was replaced in 2014 due to a crack).
A record of the original performance and the 200th anniversary performance are shown below:
Rung on the back 6 to mark the 200th anniversary of the oldest performance that we know about on the original 6 bells on 17th March 1822 in the same method.
Five of the original six bells of 1779 remain; the 5th of the 6 having been replaced in 2014 due to a crack.
Our ringing chamber has many interesting peal boards including a famous peal of Bristol Surprise Major in 1912. It took more than nine hours of ringing to complete and was a record of its time.
One of the ringers (Bertrum Prewett from Bushy) who lost his life in WWI, had the ringing room in Ypres Church recently named after him in 2018.
If anyone would like to view the peal boards in our ringing room, please ask one of the bell ringers to show you around.
After not occurring at the end of 2020 due to the suspension of in-person services because of Covid-19, the band resumed its annual tradition of ringing in the new year.
This involves a short ringing session in the chamber with open ringing before “diminishing rounds” that started at nine minutes to midnight. In the latter, all ten bells start off and one stops every minute until midnight, where the tenor chimes twelve times (this year done by Gavin Carpenter) before the entire band rings for a few minutes to accompany the fireworks.
Afterwards, refreshments were provided as usual and we wished each other a Happy New Year.
St Andrew’s bell ringers were disappointed not to be able to ring for VE Day back in May when the pandemic was still at its peak.
However, with the recent easing of restrictions, some bell ringing has resumed at Hornchurch and we were able to mark the 75th Anniversary of VJ Day on 15th August 2020, accordingly.
After observing the 2 minute silence at 11am, alternate bells were rung for 15 minutes at a time to commemorate victory over Japan at the end of World War II.
Current guidelines require bell ringing to last no more than 15 minutes with participants having to wear face coverings and keep socially distanced.
Hornchurch Bell Ringers’ Jugs and The Land of The Fanns
In 2019 the bell ringers were contacted by Debbie Kirk who has been working on a project for The Land of The Fanns and she requested more information about our bell ringers’ jugs which are displayed in the tower at St Andrew’s.
The Land of The Fanns is an area spreading across East London and South West Essex. Fanns is the Saxon word for Fen meaning ‘low marshy land or low – lying district’.
It started at Langdon Hills in 1768 when Philip Morant declared it to be the ‘greatest prospect in England’. It is a landscape rich in history and hidden gems, but often overlooked.
Across The Land of The Fanns, 100 stories have been gathered to tell the history and celebrate the people and places of the area.
Debbie Kirk chose the Hornchurch Bell Ringers’ jugs as one of the 100 Stories.
This is the full story of The Hornchurch Bell Ringers’ Jugs that Debbie Has uncovered:
The Hornchurch Bell Ringers’ Jugs and The Cove Brickworks
Grey Towers Avenue was the original driveway to Grey Towers House, a mock castle built by Henry Holmes in 1876, on land given to him by his father-in-law John Wagener who owned the Langtons estate. During his lifetime, Henry Holmes was a ship-builder, bank director, magistrate, joint owner of the Hornchurch Brewery, member of the Essex County Council, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Artillery Volunteers and leader of various charitable organizations. In the main hall at Grey Towers he displayed a pair of antique beer jugs which had been made especially for the bell ringers of St Andrew’s Church.
Directly opposite Grey Towers Avenue, on the other side of the high street, there is a block of flats on the site of what was once The Red House, and behind it was a flourishing pottery, brick and tile works, established in the early 1700s by the Cove family. It was at this pottery and brickworks that the bell ringers’ jugs were made, one in 1731 and the other in 1815. The 1731 jug (left) holds 4.5 gallons, and the 1815 jug (right) holds 6.5 gallons.
The names of the bell ringers and church wardens are engraved on both jugs, and the 1815 one bears the inscription ‘Gift of Mr C. Cove’ who was the owner of the brickworks at the time. Charles Cove also owned an old iron foundry on the opposite side of the road in a location now occupied by Sainsbury’s. In 1843 this was taken over by the Wedlake and Thompson families and renamed the Union Foundry. Robert Wedlake had established the Fairkytes Foundry in Billet Lane with his brother Thomas, but he was sacked by his sister-in-law Mary Wedlake when Thomas died in 1843, and so, with his business partner Charles Thompson, he set up the Union Foundry in direct competition with Mary Wedlake just yards away from her premises.
When Charles Thompson died two years later, his wife Ann took his place at the Union foundry. In 1847 Charles Cove died and a few months later his son, also called Charles Cove, married Ann Thompson’s daughter, also called Ann Thompson. They took over the brickworks and lived at The Red House which continued to be owned by brick-makers and builders until it was demolished in 1969 to make way for the block of flats that stands on its site today.
So how did the beer jugs end up in the main hall at Grey Towers House when the Cove family had made them specifically for the St Andrew’s bell ringers? Well, the jugs needed to be filled, so the bell ringers would take them around the village on a barrow to get them filled with beer which they drank at intervals whilst ringing the church bells. The jugs were also filled with ale brewed at Hornchurch Hall which was located opposite St Andrew’s Church and occupied by the Bearblock family, who would use the jugs to offer beer to the tenants who leased their land when they came to pay their rent. The name ‘Reverend James Bearblock’ is engraved on the 1815 bell ringers’ jug because he was the church warden at that time. The jugs were also filled at the Kings Head pub located on the high street along from Hornchurch Hall and opposite the Old Hornchurch Brewery.
Henry Holmes and his brother Benjamin owned both the Kings Head pub and the brewery. One day when the publican was late paying his rent, the Holmes brothers lost their temper, and, seeing the bell ringers’ jugs waiting to be filled with beer, they seized them and took them back to Grey Towers. The jugs remained at Grey Towers until 1914, by which time both Henry and his wife had passed away and their house and its contents were put up for auction. Henry’s children bought back the jugs at the auction and presented them to the vicar of St Andrew’s Church, always to be kept there for the bell ringers, and that is where they remain today, although not on display to the public. In 1979 a third jug was added by the bell ringers themselves to celebrate the bicentennial of the six bells at St Andrew’s Church which were cast in 1779.
With reference to Charles Perfect and thanks to Gavin Carpenter of the St Andrew’s Hornchurch Guild of Change Ringers.
Story writer/provider Debbie Kirk
Each of the stories has had a flag designed and created for them and on 30th August 2020 all 100 flags went on display at the Thames Chase Forest Centre in Upminster.
The photograph below is of the flag created for the ringers’ jugs.
With all churches closed for more than 3 months during ‘lockdown’, bell ringers have been unable to gather in their local tower to practise their art. They have, however, been able to meet virtually using a ‘meetings’ app such as ‘Zoom’ or ‘Microsoft Teams’. Many bell ringers have now combined this online meeting with a web-site that allows them to ring virtually.
St Andrew’s bell ringers have been using a virtual bell ringing web-site called ‘Ringing Room’. It was invented at the end of March by a group of bell ringers in America, partly in response to the pandemic and partly because bell ringers in America live a long way apart and needed a way to practise together.
Each tower can create their own virtual ‘Ringing Room’ and individual ringers can log on and enter their virtual tower. Each ringer is then assigned a bell rope (see screenshot below) which can be rung by touching the spacebar.
The number of bells can be varied from 4 to 12 and simple commands are possible to start and finish the ringing.
Our numbers have increased from 9 initially to 14 more recently and we have rung Rounds on 10, Plain Hunt on 5,6 & 7, Plain Bob Doubles and Grandsire Doubles. It’s a slightly different skill to ringing a church bell; no physical effort is required but the bell ringers have to listen very carefully and count their position in the sequence. This takes a while to learn and takes a lot of mental concentration.
As expected, our younger bell ringers have been quick to master the technology but some of our ‘not so young’ ringers have also benefitted from this new technology and improved their understanding of bell ringing theory considerably.
St Andrew’s Ringers meet for virtual ringing
We have also trialled the online ringing with children as young as 6 and achieved positive results. The photo below shows Evan Smith smiling after ringing Plain Hunt on 4.
Since the beginning of ‘lockdown’ in March 2020, St Andrew’s bells have remained silent with permission needed to ring a single bell only.
The silence was broken on Sunday 14th June when permission was given to ring a single bell for the 3rd anniversary of the Grenfell fire tragedy.
The tenor was tolled 72 times to remember the 72 victims of the fire followed by 2 minutes silence and 3 more tolls to signify the 3 years that have passed.
A video recording is available on the Parish website.
We hope to hear the bells ringing for happier occasions soon!
