Category: News

The Diocese of Southwark granted a faculty for work on the new carillon chiming device and a new electronic version was installed by Nicholsons Engineering Ltd/Bell Hangers in February 2023.

There will be a special dedication service Sunday 23 April for the new chiming device and to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of our 12 bells.

In this blog post, we track the progress, what the current situation was before the work took place, the work which was carried out and the hymns we have programmed in.

The history

The carillon in Kingston Parish Church dates from 1923 and has given solid service for the last 98 years.

Here is a brief history of the carillon (source Chris Ridley).

• In February 1923 Gillett’s supplied an estimate for a new carillon machine to replace an existing carillon thought to be about 200 years old which played two tunes only (Hanover and the Easter Hymn). The new machine was to play 4 tunes (Hanover, Easter Hymn, St Davids and London New) with a new barrel of cast iron and case hardened with steel pins. Work was completed in October 1923.
• In the 1930s it was agreed between the Corporation and Church that the ownership of the clock should be vested in the Corporation, while the driving rods, dials and hands as well as the striking mechanism should remain the responsibility of the Church. The carillon is similarly dealt with – the machine is the property of the Corporation while the activating levers, wires and hammer mechanisms on the bell frame are owned by the Church.
• The carillon appears to be liked by members of the congregation and is part of the atmosphere around the church and market.
• The carillon plays the tunes at certain times of the day, nominally 9.00am, 12.00noon, 3.00pm and 6.00pm for 3-4 minutes and is independent from the hour strike.
• The carillon comprises the following components:
  o A large cast iron drum C3ft in diameter and 1.5 metres wide with iron pegs resembling a music box, powered by an electric motor with a
  leather drive belt.
  o The iron pegs lift levers, which via a system of intricate steel wires
  and linkages, operate hammers which strike the bells.
  o There are four hymn tunes appropriate to events in the church
  calendar, see below.
  o The tunes are changed by turning a worm drive on the drum to move
  the drum to engage with different pegs.
  o The carillon is activated from the electrically driven clock by an old
  mercury switch which is potentially unsafe.
  o Before the bells can be rung full circle for normal practice and service ringing, the hammers have to be lifted away from the bells by a ‘pull off’ mechanism comprising four wires going from a ‘trailer winch’ in the ringing chamber up to the carillon.

Current situation

• In the bellringers’ opinion the carillon barrel and associated mechanisms have reached the end of their operating life and failure to deal with this issue in the near future could potentially lead to significant and expensive damage to the bells and fittings.
• Over the years, a number of ‘bodges’ have kept the carillon operating, but the whole mechanism is very worn and dilapidated and in need of a
  complete refurbishment.
• Several of the pegs are now missing or worn and other notes strike
  randomly probably as the drum is misaligned with the levers.
• The linking wires are stretched, bent and in some cases patched up with
  other bits of wire and have broken and been repaired in the past.
• The hammers and the hammer hinges are also worn and in some cases rest against a bell when they should be clear of the bell.
• The linkage levers and pulleys are attached to the floor of the clock
  chamber and the floor is very rickety. Levers/pulleys occasionally pull out of the floor and have to be resecured with larger bolts but it’s all very unsatisfactory.
• The wires run along the floors and are a trip hazard for someone not used to moving around in the clock room.
• The tunes sound very jumbled and it is difficult to pick out original tunes.
• The pull off mechanism also needs complete refurbishment.
• There is a danger that a wire could break/fail and a hammer fall back on a bell whilst being rung full circle and this could cause a lot of damage including potentially cracking a bell which would be disastrous.
• The clock operates well and the hour strike is unaffected. The clock is
  maintained by Public Clocks and financed by the Council.
• However, it would be a good opportunity to refurbish the hour strike
  mechanism and also the ‘dinger’ used before the services as this is also on its last legs. This has also been patched up over the years.
• There is a lot of junk in the clock chamber and it would be good to have a clear out.
• The carillon has been disabled pending a decision on its’ future but the hour strike and ‘dinger’ still operate.

Work carried out

The carillon has been replaced with a modern electronic
version. The mechanism from the old carillon is being retained in case there is the finance and will power to restore it in the future.

The new carillon will play the same tunes, strike the hour and have a minute bell facility.

The bell fittings will have a full service including the following:
– New wheel for the 10th bell (the existing wheel was warped) – it goes very smoothly now!
– New walkway on the frame for safer access
– Lubrication of all moving parts
– Tighten all bolts to required tension

Hymns

Christmas to Lent Tune 1 25 December to 17 February
(O worship the King)
During Lent Tune 3 17 February to 4 April
(Christ is gone up)
Easter Sunday to Whitsunday Tune 4 4 April to 23 May
(Christ the Lord is risen)
Whitsunday to Mid-September Tune 3 23 May to 15 September
(Christ is gone up)
Mid-September to Christmas Tune 2 15 September to 25 December
(God moves in a mysterious way)

Our photo of the 5yd St George Cross from Alpha Flags features on their blog where they describe what special measures they have done for our flag: “For this particular St George, due to the size and flagpole location, we strengthened both the hoist and the fly for extra protection.”

We’re very happy with our new replacement flag. * Not an ad.

It’s the 200th anniversary for this peal, rang on February 24 1823! It is also the third oldest pealboard in the tower! I love the old-fashioned spelling of complete, Grandsire and the abbreviations of names.

Compleat
PEAL of 5093 Gransire CATORS Was RUNG in this Steeple on Monday February 24th 1823 in 3 hours and 25 minutes.

John Duffell – Treble
William Cook – 2
Thomas Morffew – 3
John Bates – 4
Philip Parslow – 5
Richard Laming – 6
James Wright – 7
Joseph Clark – 8
Richard Hanks – 9
James Tilling – Tenor

Called by Joseph Clark
J. Carter
J. Allfield
Church Wardens

Just found some of these ringers listed as Ancient Society of College Youths ringers. Fascinating stuff! If any of our readers has any history about any of the ringers from this peal/tower or is related to them and ringing too, do get in touch!

Article originally published in Ringing World (11 February 2023)

The ‘Ring for the King’ recruitment and ringing initiative is well underway at All Saints, Kingston upon Thames. This is particularly pertinent given the Church was the site for the crowning of several Saxon Kings, especially King Aethelstan in 925 to whom the regional leaders swore allegiance creating what we now know as England in 927.

Penny Lane Entertainment Ltd have been commissioned by ITV’s ‘Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh’ – a programme broadcast on Sunday mornings (between 9.30 and 11.30) – to make up to four ringing features in support of the ‘Ring for the King’ initiative. With the historical connection they were keen to include Kingston. It was agreed to meet on Monday 16 January to undertake around 6 hours of filming to produce footage for a 3 minute segment in the programme to be broadcast. The team asked if the ringers would include some young ringers until it was pointed out that weekdays are school days! As such they had to make do with a more mature set of ringers. As many of the Kingston ringers are still in full-time employment and with the funeral of the Association’s former President, Eric Godfrey, taking place elsewhere on that day resulting in the absence of Paul and Kate Flavell, it was necessary to call in some help from other towers and I am grateful to all those who came to help on the day.

In addition to filming the ringing and interviewing some of the ringers they added footage of the Vicar (Revd Joe Moffatt) and Heritage Officer (Pippa Heasman) discussing the role of All Saints Church to the town both in a historical and present day context. The ringing was kept straight forward with lots of rounds on the complete ring of 12 bells interspersed with Stedman Caters. Alan Titchmarsh is himself a ringer but was not present on the day so we were unable to see him ring. The camera team had seen ringing at a previous location but thought the Kingston belfry an ideal location given the space and large model bell in the middle of the rope circle. They had not filmed seeing the bells turning over when being rung together however, so were fascinated and keen to film that sequence with shots of the ringing itself in the belfry. I was also given the task of being mic’d-up to explained change ringing to the camera while taking part in a course of Stedman Caters – multi-tasking not normally required when ringing at Kingston!

We have now been informed the item is to be broadcast in the programme scheduled for Sunday 12 February (Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh from 9.30am on ITV). Most of us will of course be ringing ourselves at that time but you should be able to view on catch up afterwards).

Further publicity about ‘Ring for the King’ can be found on the Surrey Bellringers website (The Surrey Association of church bell ringers (surreybellringers.org.uk) as well as the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers website (CCCBR).

Chris Ridley

Did you catch the Kingston bell ringers on ITV’s Love your weekend with Alan Titchmarsh? (Sunday 12 February 2023)

Great to have ITV’s Love your weekend in the tower and church on Monday 16 January, learning about bellringing and the heritage of All Saints Church.

Unfortunately, many of the local band couldn’t make it due to work or other commitments, but we appreciate the help of distinguished ringers lending a hand, including Chris Ridley, Caroline Prescott, Michael Uphill, Anne Anthony, Steve Mitchell and Mary Gow to name the few I spotted in the video.

Stills from video from Chris Turner. Behind the scenes video on Instagram.

Happy New Year from the Kingston bell ringers!

If you ever fancied having a go at bell ringing, now is the perfect time to get in touch and learn. If you start now, you will be able to take part in ringing for the King’s Coronation in May.

Ring for the King

We are actively seeking to train new bell-ringers who will be able to Ring for the King when he is crowned on May 6^th 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 bell-ringers call music 

•    Social – bell ringers are very sociable people enjoying going for coffee and to the pub after ringing sessions.  

•   Friendship – bell-ringers 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:  www.bellringing.org/learntoring/

Contact your local tower captain 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.  

Sunday 4 December: Normal morning ringing.  Visiting peal band in the afternoon.

Wednesday 7 December: No practice.  Service ringing 6.15 pm to 6.55 pm followed by curry for those booked.

Sunday 11 December: Normal ringing morning and evening.

Wednesday 14 December: No practice. Carol service, no bells required.

Friday 16 December: Decorating our Christmas tree in church as part of the Christmas Tree festival. 

Sunday 18 December: Normal morning ringing, quarter peal in the afternoon.

Wednesday 21 December: Normal practice

Saturday 24 December: Ringing 10.15 pm to 10.55 pm for Midnight Mass.

Sunday 25 December: Normal Sunday morning ringing. No evening ringing.

Wednesday 28 December: Normal practice

Saturday 31 December: Drinks and nibbles in the tower from 11.15 pm then ring in the New Year.  Arrive promptly and bring your own drinks & contributions to nibbles to share.

Sunday 1 January: Normal morning and evening ringing.  

Wednesday 4 January: All ringing back to normal.

Monday 9 January: Take down Christmas tree decorations.  

Paul Flavell

The Surrey Association were the hosts for this year’s Essex Trophy competition. We were very grateful to Ed and Val Muller for the use of Bletchingley bells their kind hospitality in laying on refreshments and Ploughman’s lunches, and for the use of the excellent Village Hall as the central meeting area.

Six teams entered to ring a full course of Yorkshire Surprise Royal, marked
from the fourth lead end. Each team was given a 30 minute slot to practise
and ring their test piece. Bletchingley bells are a pleasant ground floor 10,
rehung in 1989 and augmented to 10 in 1991, and ideal for this competition.

The judge was Ian Roulstone from St Paul’s Cathedral, safely squirrelled away on the first floor of the church rooms next to the church. Ian commented on each team in turn and said the ringing had all been quite consistent and nice to listen to. There were very few method mistakes which is essential in a striking contest!

The results were as follows:
Place Team Peal speed Faults (out of 400 marks)
1 Essex 3hrs 09min 54
2 Surrey 3hrs 18min 71
3 Guildford 3hrs 20min 79
4 Kent 3hrs 20min 94
5 Sussex 3hrs 11min 108
6 Middlesex 3hrs 08min 155

Congratulations to this year’s winners Essex and thanks again to Bletchingley and Ian.

Essex will be hosting the 2023 competition on 9 September at St Mary’s Walthamstow.

Team photos

Fraser Storie

Exactly 2 months ago tomorrow (at the time of writing), the Bell Ringers of All Saints, Kingston-upon-Thames had their annual excursion. 4 towers in total were rung at, in the counties of Surrey and Hampshire. Not only that, we had a scrumptious lunch halfway through at ‘The White Hart’ in Holybourne, with an attempt made for cream tea at the end of the day, but that was not quite as successful as it could have been! 

Tower 1 was the light ring of 8 at Frensham. This was the only tower on the day which was in the county of Surrey, with the other 3 being in Hampshire. Not only that, this was also our heaviest ring on the day, with a 9cwt tenor in G.

These are a very mixed bag of bells. Until 1973, a ring of 6 by Taylor’s, Ellis I Knight, Mears & Stainbank, Robert Catlin, and an unidentified founder was present. Then, Whitechapel cast 2 trebles to make the ring of 8 we know today. In fact, they recently received a major overhaul by Taylor’s. This involved a rehang, retuning, restoration of clappers amongst other things, and the cleaning/replacement of bearings. As a result, producing a very enjoyable octave to ring on.

Alton boasts 2 rings in the main part of the town, those being All Saints and St Lawrence. Our second tower was the former, which is in the South Western part of the town. It is located on the crossroads of Butts Road, Queens Road and the extremely fittingly named Tower Street. Diagonally opposite the church is Alton Fire Station, situated on a small raised mound which provided a great vantage point for filming the ringing.

This tower, much like the 3rd and 4th towers on the outing, has a delightful set of new bells. In this case, the ring of 6 here was installed by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in 2006. They are also a light set of bells, being only 6cwt. Not only that, they are tuned to B. Making this quite a comparison to one of my home towers at Addington. One major difference between them though is that Addington sound very clear in the ringing chamber whereas Alton have much more resonating tones. It’s as if the bells have a striking tone of being muffled, but the volume of a normal bell, thus making these bells quite pleasing to listen to.

With 2 towers completed, we drove up the road to Holybourne – a suburb of Alton. This was the location of our aforementioned scrumptious lunch! My food was impossible to complain about: despite the quite large circumference of my Korean Spiced Chicken Burger (which no doubt resulted in some difficult and messy bites), the taste and texture was magnificent! Completed with chips and baked beans on the side, that was certainly one of the best pub meals I’ve ever had!

Now, on to the afternoon …

Just metres away from the pub is Church Lane, the country lane that took us up the gentle incline to The Church of The Holy Road. This was our 3rd and penultimate tower of the day. We arrived around 30 minutes early, so we took the time so take the band photo in the churchyard. This also gave us an extra 10 minutes of ringing time as our tower-opener also arrived prematurely!

Like the previous tower, Holybourne have a full Whitechapel set of bells. Cast in 2009, they are again tuned the B and weigh 6cwt. In addition, there are 3 clock bells. 2 quarter chimes (in D and B) and the hour bell in A. These are much older, having been cast by Richard Phelps, Richard Eldridge and the Wokingham Foundry in 1600, 1728 and around 1440! For me, the ring of 8 here was very easy-going. They required little effort to keep up, and the bells I rang had no habit of suddenly dropping on you. I have to say, the rings around here are of a very commendable quality.

Following on from the outstanding 8 at Holybourne, we moved swiftly on to our 4th and final tower. Which was in the village of Chawton, similar to Holybourne, being in extremely close proximity to Alton.

Similar to Alton and Holybourne, Chawton has a complete set of bells. Not by Whitechapel though, this time they were cast by Taylors, Eayre and Smith in 2009. Additionally, for the 3rd time on this outing, they are in the key of B, and weigh 6cwt! Furthermore, there are 2 chiming bells, much older though. The lighter cast by the Wokingham Foundry in circa 1499, and the heavier by Henry I Knight in 1621. This ring was also an easy-going set. Quite like my lunch, nothing to complain about!

There we have it! An extremely fun-packed day of ringing, together with an excellent spot of grub. I must say, a massive thank you to the Kingston Bell Ringers for inviting me along – a day well spent!

Professional photographer James Bell visited the tower on practice night and took some lovely pictures in the tower. We sent some of the ones of our fine pealboards to ‘The Ringing World’, the bell ringers’ magazine.