Category Archives: Events

Ringing the changes at St Mary Magdalen Bermondsey

St Mary Magdalen before 1828

St Mary Magdalen before 1828 (above) and today (below).

St Mary Magdalen today

This Saturday, 20th September, the sound of Church bells ringing the changes will be heard again for the first time in over 180 years at St Mary Magdalen Church at the corner of Tower Bridge Road and Abbey Street in Bermondsey. Bellringers from the daughter church of St James’ will erect a mobile belfry in the churchyard at St Mary Magdalen as part of the Bermondsey Street Festival, between 12.00 and 4.00pm.

Parts of the tower at St Mary Magdalen date back to 1290, and there are records of 14 peals being rung on the bells hung in the tower. The first was 10,080 changes of Plain Bob Major rung by the College Youths on 18th May 1728. This was one of the very earliest peals rung anywhere.  The first ever peal was rung in Norwich less than 10 years before.

Whilst the bells at St Mary Magdalen played an important role in the development of change-ringing, in 1828 the top half of the tower at St Mary Magdalen was demolished and its bells were melted down.

On Saturday the band from St James’ will be bringing the Charmborough Ring, a mobile bell tower for the day and demonstrating the art of ringing the changes. There will also be the opportunity for members of the public to have a go.

St James has a peal of eight bells and an active team of ringers, although their leader Roger Booth say that they could always do with a few more ringers. The team also mans the ropes at nearby St Mary’s Church in Rotherhithe and is offering would be ringers an intensive series of lessons so that people could learn the basics in a week, and then join in with the rest of the team at their regular weekly practice sessions at St James’ at 7.30pm on Tuesday evenings.

Bells ring at Christchurch Fete

The parish fete held on Sunday afternoon 13th July is always a high point in the Isle of Dogs social calendar and this year’s event was no exception. Opened by local MP Jim Fitzpatrick, the event was held in the large vicarage garden to the rear of Christchurch, and the Charmborough ring was erected at the entrance to the Garden. Although we could have done with a few more ringers for the first hour and a half, we entertained a steady group of people, giving quite few of them the chance to try a few backstrokes and then ring backstrokes in rounds.

Local Pearly Kings and Queens were present, as were the local scouts and cubs, quite a few of whom had a go. One of these was the daughter of Paul Ashton, who used to ring at St Dunstan’s Stepney.

Buki Rufai, one of the people that we have been teaching at Christchurch for the last five weeks also had a go, and after a little while was successfully ringing rounds on six, on her own. This only goes to show how much quicker people can learn to ring on an easy-going ring of bells like the Charmborough Ring. Who knows what we could be achieved in a whole day!

Fr. Tom Pyke, Vicar of Christchurch learnt to ring before he became a priest, and at his last Parish (St Paul’s in the Jewelry Quarter, Birmingham) was instrumental in having a new ring of ten with a tenor of 12 cwt installed. His other claim to fame is that he married Richard Grimmett, captain of the band that has won the National 12 Bell Competition each year for the past 5 years! Fr. Tom also enjoyed joining in the ringing on the Charmborough ring during the afternoon.

We look forward to working with Fr. Tom and the congregation at Christchurch over the coming weeks and months to increase the number of active bell-ringers at Christchurch and to re-establish an active local band.

 

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St Peter’s Day at Walworth

It was such a treat to have the bells ringing out so beautifully for St Peter’s Day on Sunday – thanks so much to you and the team! It really made a difference to the festive feel of the day, and I hope really did alert parishioners to the significance of the day and indeed of the procession making its way around the parish. It’d be lovely to combine again at some point. With joy,

Father Andrew Moughtin-Mumby
Rector of St Peter’s, Walworth
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On Sunday 29th June, there was a large congregation to hear the bells, as we attempted a quarter peal of Plain Bob Minor as the procession left the church after the festival mass. Eva was ringing the treble, and it would have been Eva’s first of minor, also Drew’s who was ringing the 5th. As St Peter’s are so light and manageable, you are able to do things which would not be possible on heavier rings of bells.

The ringing soon settled down, but we lost the quarter after about 300 changes as two bells crossed over. We did try again, but as often happens, the ringing the second time was not as good, so we decided to ring the bells down after about half an hour’s ringing. Never the less the parish appreciated their bells being rung, especially as nowadays they are rarely rung, and not on Sundays. It was also good to probe the boundaries, and certainly the band could have scored a quarter. It shows that we can move on to ring more minor, rather than so much doubles.

Reading the plaque in the ringing room, it was also the 13th anniversary to the day of the completion of the restoration and the bells being dedicated, so perhaps there will be better luck next time!

Walworth

Spring clean at Isle of Dogs

Thanks to a lot of hard work on Saturday morning, particularly from Mickey Etches, we have managed to clear a bag full of dust and other debris from the base of the spire, the belfry and the clock-room. Nuts and bolts have been tightened and our CCTV camera above the bells is working again, as is the doorbell. This means that we can leave the door locked, and when you come to Christchurch you can ring the doorbell and we will be able to come down and let you in. The door is the main South door immediately underneath the tower, off Glenaffric Avenue, and the bell push is on the right hand side.

We have now started practicing at Christchurch on Wednesday evenings from 7.00 till 9.00, although at the moment we are mainly teaching people to handle a bell on their own. There will be a break on 23rd and 30th July for the summer holidays, but otherwise we should be there most weeks. Anyone who wants to learn to handle is welcome.

We also plan to teach bell handling on other evenings, by appointment. As the band grows we will also arrange some Saturday morning training sessions at Christchurch, probably from mid-August onwards, to get everyone ringing rounds, hopefully by mid September. We can then start thinking about ringing the bells on Sundays.

On Wednesday evenings there is usually a Mass between 7.15 and 8.00pm at Christchurch, and we have installed an electronic simulator system, the same as the one at Rotherhithe, which means that we can ring the bells without making a noise outside. So even if you cannot hear anything, please ring the doorbell and come up.

The advantage of Wednesdays is that the Meridian Ringers practice between 8.00 and 9.30pm at Greenwich, which is only 15 minutes walk away through the foot tunnel, or one stop on the DLR. Therefore if we meet short, or our new ringers want some extra practice, we can always go across the river.

I am currently trying to find enough people to help use a Mobile Belfry for the Christchurch Fete on Sunday 13th July. If you have not spoken to me about this, and would like to help, and perhaps try to recruit a few more ringers, please get in touch. You can see what the belfry looks like on this video:

and how it erected on this one:

Roger
07411 181 583

Rotherhithe barbecue success

Yesterday the churchyard at St Mary’s was full of noise, but this was not the ringing of bells; it was the live bands and PA system of the annual parish barbecue. The churchyard was also full of people from the surrounding area, meeting each other and enjoying a range of attractions.

One of these attractions was guided trips up the tower to see the bells, We arrived at 3.30pm and prepared the tower to receive our fist batch of visitors at 4pm. To start with there was a slow trickle, but from about 4.30pm until about 7pm, we were continuously showing people up the tower in groups four to eight at a time. As soon as one group came down, we had more who wanted to go up, and having seen the bells, they were then shown some live ringing and offered the chance of ringing some backstrokes on one of the bells.

Many of the people came from the surrounding blocks, or were members of the church, and had heard the bells ringing before, but did not appreciate how they were rung. We handed out leaflets and explained how they could come along and learn with us if they wished. Several said that they would. At the very least we have succeeded in engaging with the local community and the church family, and have thereby raised our profile. We are very grateful to those who have come along and helped, particularly those from the outer parts of the Surrey Association.