A Peek Inside Holy Trinity’s Bell Tower On Ringers’ Practice Night

Published on: 24 Feb, 2018
Updated on: 27 Feb, 2018

By David Rose

The sound of church bells ringing out is part of the culture and heritage of Britain. But how often do we give a thought of what actually goes into creating a peal of sweet-sounding bells?

If you are in Guildford town centre on a Wednesday evening you can hear church bells ringing. The bell ringers of the joint parish of Holy Trinity and St Mary’s Churches ring at those churches on alternate weeks.

Bell ringing at Holy Trinity Church, High Street, Guildford.

Bell tower captain Michael Bryant invited me to join them in the tower of Holy Trinity Church to see them practising and have a look at the bells themselves.

There are seven regular ringers at Holy Trinity Church, who are all members of the Guildford Diocese Guild of Church Bell Ringers. Other ringers from neighbouring parishes often join them and there are typically 10 present on practice nights.

Holy Trinity Church’s bells are rung most Sundays and also for weddings and civic occasions.

Roger Bull (left) has been ringing the bells since 1967. Next to him is Ann Pierce who has been ringing at Holy Trinity for over 40 years.

Michael started ringing at Holy Trinity in 1981 when he was 12 years old. However, others have been ringing for longer. Former tower captain Roger Bull started ringing in 1967, while Ann Pierce has been ringing in the Holy Trinity parish for over 40 years.

One of the newest members is Grace Clements, who, although has been ringing bells for a number of years, joined the team a year and a half ago after coming to Guildford. She teaches at the Royal Grammar School.

The bells themselves, originally cast in the 1760s.

After climbing the stairs to the ringing room, Michael then took me further up the tower, via a ladder, to the bells themselves. Holy Trinity has eight bells. They were cast in the 1760s with the first full peal being rung in 1769.

In 1912, they were removed from the tower and taken to John Taylor & Co’s bell foundry in Loughborough for maintenance, at which time some were retuned or recast.

At some stage in the near future major work will be needed on the bells as Michael says some are quite hard to ring at the present time.

Some of the many plaques in the ringing room marking special events from which peals have been rung.

The ringing room is fascinating as on its walls are many plaques noting dates and details of specific peals that have been rung over the years.

Their weekly practice session lasts from 8pm to 9.15pm. On the evening I was present they had eight ringers.

Before they started Michael informed me not to be alarmed by the movement of the tower as they got going. And it did! You could feel the tower moving slightly due to the weight of the bells and the ringers pulling their ropes.

I sat watching with interest and clicked away with my camera taking not only photos by a couple of film clips.

I was then invited to have a go myself. Never one to duck the chance to try something new, Michael gave me some basic instruction and off we went. I have to add that he also held onto the bell rope to make sure I didn’t completely muck it all up. I was surprised how light the rope felt, considering the weight of the bell up above me.

David Rose (left) has a go at ringing with the help of bell tower captain Michael Bryant.

During their practice the team rang several different types, or ‘methods’ of change ringing. With me being a musician and with some kind of understanding of music structure, I have to say I found it hard to work out which bell ringers were doing what as the ringing got going and how they were timing what they rung. I guess it comes with practice and understanding of bell ringing.

In fact, the website Discover Bell Ringing states: “Bell ringing music is like no other. It is not written on a standard score, is performed entirely from memory and is learnt by the path of the order that each bell sounds.

“Bells start out by ringing down the scale, the familiar sound of bells we all know. This is written out as 1 2 3 4 5 if there are five bells involved. But to ring ‘changes’ bells change their ‘place’ in the order each time they strike. So, for example, the first strike after ringing down the scale would be 2 1 4 3 5. The first four bells have all swapped place with their neighbour. Next the combination goes to 2 4 1 5 3. This time it is the leading bell, number 2, which does not move and all the others move places.”

An interesting item in the bell tower is its ‘Peal Book’.

It contains pages and pages all beautifully written and illustrated recording the ringing of special peals. This page marks one for the end of the Second World War rung on August 15, 1945.

The bell ringing section of the Parish of Holy Trinity and St Mary’s Churches website sums it up as well: “Church bell ringing is based on sequences of numbers in ‘methods’ rather than ‘tunes’, so no musical ability is needed. It combines the physical skill of controlling a large mass of moving metal with the mental ability of remembering an increasing repertoire of methods. New recruits are always welcome. We teach learners of any age but you do need to be strong enough to handle the bells!”

Michael said to me: “I cannot play a musical instrument, but all you really need is a sense of memory, rhythm and anticipation.”

The team welcome new ringers, whether experienced or not. Click here for more details on the parish’s website.