BellBoard

rung to mark the visit of HM the queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to Brentwood

first of major-1

RW 15th November 1957

when I visited brentwood in 2022 I was told by Raymond jones that as Harry turner lost his voice during the latter half of this peal the conducting was completed by his son Laurence who presumably knew the composition!. weather this is true or not I don't know but if so it has to be one of the few occasions that a peal of major has had two conductors!

Unfortunately for Oliver Lee, my cousin Raymond Jones remembered this peal incorrectly.

From the original footnote, this was a "must get" peal.

A few days before the peal my father, Harry Turner, got a throat infection and was unsure his voice would last out. As I had no experience of calling on 8 bells It was therefore decided that I would ring beside him and If his voice failed he would give me a nudge and I would call out "Bob". As it happened, although he considered implementing this about halfway through, his voice lasted out the peal. I therefore did not make any calls in the peal, and it had only the one conductor.

I did study the composition before the peal, but did not have time to learn it thoroughly. It is a 4 part tenors parted composition. reduced to 5024 by the ommision of a block of 3 homes in the last part.