Saturday the 10th of May and the Annual Newbury Branch Bellringers Outing was once again with us. This year's tour was primarily organized by Jane Johnson with background help from Lambourn's Tower Captain, Bruce Laurie and East Garston/Lambourn and Hungerford bellringer, Maureen Tarbox. Passing through picturesque villages and gloriously beautiful countryside, the day would take in five Worcestershire Towers, culminating with a ring at Worcester Cathedral itself.

St Giles' Bredon
Our first port of call was at St. Giles' Church Bredon. Bredon church has a ring of six bells in all: the first cast by Abraham Rudhall, 1733; the second, third and fifth by an otherwise unknown William Whitmore, 1624, the inscription on the third being 'W. Witmore made us all'; the fourth is by Abraham Rudhall, 1706; the sixth is a 'ting-tang' without inscription.  Below centre and left we see what I am told is the original ladder leading to the bell tower, how ringers negotiated the seemingly out of reach, first rung, is anybodies guess.
Bredon is a large village and civil parish in Worcestershire England. It lies in the extreme south of the county, in the Wychavon Local Authority District, on the banks of the River Avon. At the 2001 census it had a population of 2,513, including the hamlet of Bredon's Hardwick. The parish also includes Bredon's Norton, formerly a separate parish to the north, which had a population of 207 in 2001.   Bredon Hill is well known as the birthplace of Fred Archer (1915–1999), whose many books describe in vivid prose, life on the farms and in the villages in past years, particularly the first part of the 20th century.  The author John Moore described life on and around Bredon Hill in the early 20th century in the 'Brensham Trilogy'. Bredon hill is immortalised in poem 21 of A. E. Housman's "A Shropshire Lad."

Bredon Hill
by AE Houseman

From "A Shropshire Lad"


In summertime on Bredon
The bells they sound so clear;
Round both the shires they ring them
In steeples far and near,
A happy noise to hear.

Here of a Sunday morning
My love and I would lie,
And see the coloured counties,
And hear the larks so high
About us in the sky.

The bells would ring to call her
In valleys miles away;
"Come all to church, good people;
Good people come and pray."
But here my love would stay.

 And I would turn and answer
Among the springing thyme,
"Oh, peal upon our wedding,
And we will hear the chime,
And come to church in time."

But when the snows at Christmas
On Bredon top were strown,
My love rose up so early
And stole out unbeknown
And went to church alone.

They tolled the one bell only,
Groom there was none to see,
The mourners followed after,
And so to church went she,
And would not wait for me.

The bells they sound on Bredon,
And still the steeples hum,
"Come all to church, good people."
O noisy bells, be dumb;
I hear you, I will come.

 M Photo : From Wikipedia by Richard Wittaker
     
The milestone obelisk in Bredon,
with the village church of St. Giles in the background


St Marys' Ripple
St. Mary's Church Ripple.
The six bells were cast at Gloucester by John Rudhall
and are all dated 1808

All Saints' Worcester
After a hearty lunch at the Plough, it was back to the bell ropes, this time at All Saints'- the third Church on the itinary. In 1692, Abraham Rudhall cast a ring of six for All Saints Church, four of which remain. Following the rebuilding of the church (1741), Abel Rudhall supplied two trebles in 1750 to complete the octave, and two years later added two more to make a ring of ten; at the time, one of only about 30 rings of ten outside London. By 1792, the tenor had cracked and was recast in 1805 by Thomas Mears & Son. The bells became a ring of twelve in 1977.

Between 1972 and 1975, a major restoration took place in which the bells were removed from the tower and sent to Whitechapel for tuning and the provision of a new cast-iron bellframe and new fittings. All the work in the tower was undertaken by members of the band, as was the installation of the two trebles in 1977.
photo All Saints's web page


St. Swithuns Worcester
St Swithuns is another of Worcester's Georgian churches. It was closed for worship in 1976 and is now maintained by the Churches Conservation Trust. Its interior, with its Box Pews and Three-Decker Pulpit, is worth seeing, but unfortunately the risk of vandalism means that the church has to be kept locked. Arrangements can be made to view it.


The ring of six comprises three bells from the medieval Worcester Foundry, c.1420, and three by the Worcester bellfounder, John Martin. The latter were cast in 1654, making this one of the oldest rings of six. The bells were retuned and rehung in a new frame in 1973. They have a very characterful sound and are well worth a visit.

photo St.Swithun's web page

Worcester Cathedral
Worcester Cathedral is a magnificent sight as it rises majestically above the River Severn. Worcester has been the seat of a bishopric since the Seventh Century, and the Cathedral was served by monks until the Reformation. St Oswald and St Wulfstan were among the bishops. Since the Eighteenth Century, the Cathedral has been famous for its part in the annual Three Choirs Festival, the oldest choral festival in existence.  Today the Cathedral is the centre of a vibrant community of clergy and laypeople, offering the praises of God each day, serving the city and diocese of Worcester, and attracting visitors from all over the world.                                                The Very Reverend Peter Atkinson (Dean)
Twelve Bells, Tenor 48-0-2 in B.   Plus Three semitone Bells. All cast by J. Taylor and Co., Loughborough, 1928 Also a Bourdon Bell weighing 4½ Tons in A ~ Taylor's 1868.  In terms of total weight, Worcester Cathedral Bells rank as the fifth heaviest ring of twelve in the world.
The Worcester Cathedral Simulator
Learning the ropes of bellringing – Quietly
By Mike Pryce
WORCESTER NEWS
AS Mark Regan described it, learning to ring church bells is a bit like learning to play bagpipes. Great fun if you're doing the doing, a lot less if you're doing the listening. However, unlike the pipes, which certainly have the capacity to disrupt a home and possibly a street, tower bells can have a whole town putting fingers in its collective ear if they're rung badly.
They are the largest and loudest musical instrument in the world. A good job then that the new teaching centre for potential bellringers in Worcester Cathedral has silent bells. Dumbbells, in fact.   Thanks to modern technology, bell ropes are attached to bell wheels, but minus the bells, and on to computers. The students don headsets and through them hear the sound they would be making if they were pulling the ropes for real

That way their mistakes remain private and do not ring out over the county cricket ground, High Street and a large part of Sidbury too. "It's a bit like a flight simulator," said Mark. "You can practise before you do it for real.".  You can hit a few musical mountainsides in the privacy of your own headset and when you're ready, you can move on to the real thing.  Bells," he added. "Can be heard by thousands across the city." A fairly scary thought. Although tempered by the knowledge that a little old lady living in Barbourne can't tell who is up the cathedral tower doing the ringing. She'll not know who to blame or praise.
People who successfully complete the course are awarded a certificate and have the opportunity to join the Cathedral Guild of Bellringers, who are committed to ringing the bells every week.  The new £25,000 teaching centre - funded by grants and donations - has been created in the cathedral tower's clock room, where the workings of the clock sit behind a glass case. There are six dumbbells attached to computers, which hang in three separate frames. "Each pair of dumbbells is housed in a light steel cage, similar to a bell frame," Mark explained. "The design team comprised Jim Wheeler, Neil Sparey and Chris Phillips. They were built by Jim and Neil at NDS Engineering at Clifton-upon-Teme and Chris built the wheels. I don't think there is anything like it anywhere.

"Weights are attached to create the effect of a real ringing bell and a sensor sends a signal to the computer, which generates the sound of a real bell. The learner is given the sensation of ringing with a whole team of ringers. "This facility means ringers are taught without making noise that can be heard outside. Pupils can practise for hours without causing a disturbance and practice time is really important. Until now, there was no history of teaching ringing in the cathedral, and in the past it attracted its ringers in a haphazard way. There was no succession planning and its ringers had little involvement in cathedral life. Hopefully, that will now change and connections are being developed with three of Worcester's leading educational establishments, the King's School, Bishop Perowne CE College and the city's university.
Our intrepid ringers enjoy a final refreshment stop before heading home. All were full of praise for a really splendid day.

Photos : Graham Frith : Marcus Allum and Mark Brock
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