Ring for the King

We are actively seeking to train new bellringers who will be able to Ring for the King when he is crowned on 6 May and after that.  Bell ringing is a wonderful hobby for people of all ages and there is something of interest to everybody, including for example:

• Teamwork – working as a team to ring changes together
• Physical and mental exercise – ringing is a technique that doesn’t involve brute strength but coordination and technique to control the bell in split second timing
• Music – creating the changes and permutations bellringers call music
• Social – bell ringers are very sociable people enjoying going for coffee and to the pub after ringing sessions.
• Friendship – bellringers have friends all over the UK and the world where bells are rung English style

This website will give you some more information and a flavour for what’s involved: http://www.bellringing.org/learntoring/

Contact your local tower captain, Jackie Harrison, and come along and watch to get an idea of what is involved.  Learning to ring church bells is a structured process that takes a number of one-to-one sessions to be competent at ‘handling’ a bell.  Once mastered, practice enables the ringer to become more confident and gain greater satisfaction from ringing alone to start with and then with the team. You don’t have to be a churchgoer, there is no compulsion to stay for services.

Richmond Ringers complete rare quarter peal

Five members of St Mary’s bell ringers completed a quarter peal on 2 November as part of the Surrey Association’s quarter peal week. This was the first time since 2015 that so many local ringers had taken part in a quarter peal on St Mary’s bells.

On this occasion the ringers rang Grandsire Doubles which is a method of changes for five bells, with three bells following in 7-6-8 order. The quarter peal consisted of 1259 changes and took 52 minutes.

Tower captain Jackie Harrison said she was pleased that St Mary’s had made a contribution to the county-wide celebration of ringing and thanked Paul Flavell from Kingston for conducting the quarter and Paul Newton and Stephen Mitchell (both from All Hallows, Twickenham) for supporting the Richmond ringers. These were: Sarah Percival, Jackie Harrison, Andrew Harvey, Martin Crick and Amanda Adams.

Richmond Ringers in solemn tribute to the Queen

Sarah Percival, Trisha Shannon & Edward Bucknell

St Mary Magdalene bell ringers took part in the national mourning for the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Responding to the request from Buckingham Palace for solemn ringing as a mark of respect for the late sovereign, the bells were rung with muffles at midday on Friday 9 September, the day after she died at Balmoral.

Andrew Harvey, Jackie Harrison & Martin Crick

Muffled ringing is the traditional way of marking sombre occasions such as funerals and the annual Sunday services of Remembrance.

A number of people gathered at St Mary’s to hear the bells and watch them being rung via a link to a big screen in the church from the bell tower.

Friday’s tribute was led by ringers at Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral and at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. Hundreds of towers across the UK also took part.