Bell Ringing

We planned to see the church and the village today and whilst on our travels met up with an ex churchwarden who gave us a potted history of the castle, church and the village. He is now in his eighties and once had an engineering business in St George, Bristol! Small world. We discovered that he is also a bellringer and that the band would be practicing at 3pm in the afternoon so a change of plan was drawn up and we joined them. There is an unusual entrance into the ringing chamber. After climbing one spiral staircase you have to traverse part of the roof on the outside past some flying buttresses and then up another narrower staircase.

Our mooring from the roof

They are a 7cwt six positioned centrally in a wide tower. You can walk around all sides of the frame. They went very smoothly if a little slow. They are a scratch band so we only rang rounds and plain hunt to begin with finishing off with a bit of Grandsire and Bob Doubles.

We were then invited up into the bell chamber by the steeple keeper Mike Leigh. They were rehung in 1990 by Whitechapel onto a new steel frame the old wooden one rendering them unringable.

Being the hottest day of the year it was a good idea to stay within the confines of a cool ringing chamber until we set off at 4:30 to moor up in the same spot as we did on Monday.

Give me lift mum!