Staplehurst Bellringers Report June 2024

News from the Tower

On 12th May we celebrated Bell Sunday, a day where the contribution of bells and bellringers to the life of the Church is recognised. Our ringers took an active part in the Morning Communion Service and it was particularly pleasing to hear Florence, one of our younger ringers, read the epistle. Roy Barclay led the prayers and, in place of the sermon, Adam Brady giving an interesting talk on bell ringing. The hymns were all bell-related and during Communion the choir sang Ding Dong Merrily on High. The service ended appropriately with a rendition of The Liberty Bell March by John Philip Souza, played expertly on the organ by Daniel Brady. Several others of our ringers also attended the service.

On the following Sunday, 19th May, we rang to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the formation of the Friends of All Saints. Funding for the restoration and augmentation of our bells in the 1990s was the Friends’ first major project and it was therefore highly appropriate that we should ring to help them celebrate the occasion.

As to the future, as many of you will know work on the restoration of the turret and the tower roof is likely to start in June. We do not know at this stage how this will impact on the bells being able to be rung, but at the moment we have two sessions of additional ringing scheduled for the month. From 6.30 – 7pm on Wednesday 6th May our bells, along with others throughout the country, will ring out for peace to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Wednesday 19th June sees our latest learning hub from 7.30 – 9pm. Other than this we will only be ringing for the regular Sunday Services, and for our normal Tuesday evening practice.

For updates on ringing during June, including whether ringing has been cancelled due to the works, please see our website at https://bells.allsaintsstaplehurst.co.uk/

Roy Barclay
Tower Secretary