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
Interested in learning to ring church bells? All ages and welcome.
On Sunday 4th February 2024, the bell ringers celebrated the licensing of Marianne Hayward as Associate Priest with a quarter peal in the evening before choral evensong.
Marianne was able to ring in the quarter peal as shown in the summary below:
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.
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)
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.
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.
On Saturday 13th May 2023, 46 bell ringers and friends set off from St Andrew’s to visit 5 different churches in Hertfordshire.
Most of the churches had eight bells, not too heavy and fairly easy to ring. This gave our young ringers, Carys, Ellen & Jamie a good opportunity to ring well whilst the more experienced ringers could ring some difficult methods without having to worry about the bells.
We visited Great Stanmore and Aldenham before our buffet lunch at Bushey Heath. After lunch, the bells improved and the ringing became more enjoyable, especially at Bushey and Langleybury.
Bushey was home to a ringer called Bertram Prewett who rang in a record peal of 9 hours at Hornchurch in 1912. He sadly lost his life in the First World War, but we were able to see many peal boards at Bushey with his name on.
Our final stop at Langleybury gave people an opportunity to walk along the canal before our evening meal at a pub with Harry Potter connections.
An enjoyable day with some good ringing, excellent food, and great company.
Ringers old and young at Bushey HeathAngela and friends at Bushey HeathNon-ringing friends at Stanmore
