Staplehurst Bellringers Report May 2023

News from the Tower

Besides their main purpose of calling people to worship bells have, throughout history, been rung to mark events of great national significance, be they sad or happy occasions. As everyone will know, one of the latter takes place on Saturday 6th May when bells will be rung throughout the United Kingdom, and beyond, to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey.

The country’s top bellringers will be performing at the Abbey, but the Staplehurst ringers will be playing their part by ringing our bells in the morning, prior to the Coronation Service. For all of us, this will be the first time we have rung for a Coronation (although at least two members of our
band remember the last one — just!). We also hope to ring a quarter-peal during the Village Celebrations on the Sunday.

Just a week later on 14th May, we will be ringing for Bell Sunday. St Dunstan is known as the Patron Saint of Bellringers due to his experimentation in early forging of bells in the 900’s AD. It is, for this reason, the nearest Sunday to his feast day (19th May) has been chosen to introduce Bell Sunday – a day where the contribution of bells and bellringers to the life of the Church is recognised. We hope that some of our ringers will be involved in the service, but details have yet to be decided.

Looking ahead to Saturday 3rd June our ringers will be joining with the Marden ringers for our annual summer outing, this year to South East Essex. Let’s hope the weather is nice so we can enjoy the Essex villages at their best.

At present, we have no visiting bands of ringers scheduled in May, so we will only be ringing for the regular Sunday Service, and for our normal Tuesday Practice.

Roy Barclay
Tower Secretary