BellBoard

The bells at St. Mary’s, Rotherhithe in London’s Docklands had been unringable since the late 1980s because of fears that they were too heavy for the tower.

In fact the bells had gone in and out of being unringable for many decades before, and various previous attempts to remodel the ring and hang them lower in the tower had come to nothing.

However, thanks to a generous grant fromt the London Docklands Development Corporation, and funding from other sources, the old eight were remodelled, the front six by Thomas Lester, cast in 1748, becoming the back six, with two new trebles cast at Lough­borough in 1966.

The new eight, tenor 10- 2-25 in A were hung by Hayward Mills in early 1997. However we were unable to ring them till August 1999, because of a structural problem with the spire.

Although a Structural Engineer was consulted about the effect of the bells on the tower before the rehanging, an unrelated problem with cracked stonework on the spire was discovered by the new church Architect.

In order to err on the side of caution, the day after the ‘try-out’ he requested that the bells not be rung again till the spire was repaired. A grant of £60,000 was obtained from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the parish has worked hard to raise it’s share of the matching funding over the past two years.

St. Mary’s is an active parish and we we have been very fortunate to recruit an enthusiastic local team of ringers, five of whom had previously rung before.

The vast number of new houses in the area built as part of the Docklands regeneration has helped with this. The band at St. James’ Bermondsey, only half a mile away, has been responsible for the tuition. Progress over the past six months has been so rapid that everyone is now at least ringing rounds, and we have been able to discontinue our early Monday evening handling practice.

The more advanced recruits are now practicing Doubles methods, so immediately before one of our regular practice nights we arranged a quarter peal attempt for three of our recruits, which was scored at the first attempt. Martin Crick had only rung two or three quarters before, the last at least seven years ago, but he rang well inside.

Richard Wood hadn’t rung a quarter for at least 14 years, but also rang very well. The prize for achievement must, however, go to ex-churchwarden Fred Sanwell who rang the tenor. Fred learnt at St. Mary’s as a youngster over 45 years ago! Technically this wasn’t the first quarter on these bells, as they were the old front six. Our next project is to ring the first on the new eight, which we hope to do in the next few weeks.

St. Mary’s is an active parish and we we have been very fortunate to recruit an enthusiastic local team of ringers, five of whom had previously rung before.

The vast number of new houses in the area built as part of the Docklands regeneration has helped with this. The band at St. James’ Bermondsey, only half a mile away, has been responsible for the tuition. Progress over the past six months has been so rapid that everyone is now at least ringing rounds, and we have been able to discontinue our early Monday evening handling practice.

The more advanced recruits are now practicing Doubles methods, so immediately before one of our regular practice nights we arranged a quarter peal attempt for three of our recruits, which was scored at the first attempt. Martin Crick had only rung two or three quarters before, the last at least seven years ago, but he rang well inside.

Richard Wood hadn’t rung a quarter for at least 14 years, but also rang very well. The prize for achievement must, however, go to ex-churchwarden Fred Sanwell who rang the tenor. Fred learnt at St. Mary’s as a youngster over 45 years ago! Technically this wasn’t the first quarter on these bells, as they were the old front six. Our next project is to ring the first on the new eight, which we hope to do in the next few weeks.