Author: So-Shan

On Saturday 26 October there is to be a bell ringing competition held here at All Saints. The
teams competing are from all the churches in the London area with 12 bells, as we have here.
Teams taking part include ringers from St Paul’s and Southwark Cathedrals.

Between now and then all ten teams are coming here to practise and to familiarise themselves with our bells. This means there will be a lot of bell ringing on Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons during September and October as they practise. Enjoy!

Saturday 29 June 2019

Chris Ridley very kindly offered to organise this year’s outing as a one-day trip to the very attractive Regency city of Cheltenham. With family contacts at all the towers this was easy to do, but he said arranging the weather was harder – in the event it was a scorcher!

We started on the recently augmented ring at St Marks. What was a difficult and nearly unringable five are now a super easy going ring of eight. With nearly 30 ringers in our party, the ringing took some juggling but everybody had a decent go.

Leckhampton followed – an unusual chancel ring in full view of the church (tricky when ringing for weddings). However, we produced some good ringing on this nice little eight.

Charlton Kings, the last tower before lunch were a trickier proposition, but again everybody managed a good ring. We stopped a little bit early for the traditional group photo and then dispersed for our own lunch arrangements.

The highlight of the afternoon was undoubtedly the brand-new ring of 12 at Cheltenham Minster. The bells were completely recast and rehung in 2017, replacing the old worn out ring (some of the bells went to Keltek to be used elsewhere). We acquitted ourselves very well on the bells including a good course of Stedman Cinques.

The quiet pretty village of Compton Abdale was a contrast to the busy streets of Cheltenham.  There is a pleasant ring of six on a small gallery so we took it in turns to have a ring there.

Finally the lovely little town of Northleach and the magnificent church of SS Peter and Paul built by wealthy wool merchants in the 15^th century. The bells date from 1700 with two trebles added in 1897. They are not easy to ring but sound wonderful and were a fitting end to a wonderful day.

I must mention how well our learners did on the outing. They were all quite happily ringing rounds on all the rings today.  We all enjoyed the outing and thanks again to Chris for organising it.

Paul Flavell
Tower Captain

One of our ringers, So-Shan, appears in the campaign film for Save the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. Our bells at All Saints, were cast at Whitechapel. Find out more about the campaign here: http://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/06/20/a-film-about-the-whitechapel-bell-foundry/

Congratulations to our Kingston bell ringers on their tremendous win!

The Surrey Association 6 and 8 bell method striking competitions were held at St John the Divine, Merton on Saturday 27th April.

In tight contests (beating Putney by 1 fault into 2nd place in both) Kingston regained both the 6 and 8 bell trophies. 

The results were: 

6 bell 

1st Kingston 25 faults
2nd Putney 26 
3rd Benhilton 37 
4th Croydon Minster 43 
5th Battersea 44 
6th Caterham St Johns and Merstham 58 
7th Merton 80 

8 bell 

1st Kingston 35 
2nd Putney 36 
3rd Croydon Minster 38

Thanks to all the teams who entered, Merton for hosting, Caroline for organising, and David Perkins and Ryan Noble for judging and providing very positive comments for all bands.