The Tower Captain, Pam Warren told us about 'Change Ringing', where you continually change the order in which you ring the individual bells, and the ringers demonstrated this on our set of hand bells. With the 5 bell ringers present there was a maximum possibility of 120 changes. With the 6 bells in our tower you can achieve 720 changes, but if we had 8 bells you could achieve 5,040 changes, which is termed a "Full Peal" and would take about 3 hours to complete. (Return to top)

Our 'Ringing Chamber' where the ringers stand is halfway up the tower with a full height window into the church so you can see the bell ringers at work whilst you sit in the nave. Pam demonstrated how the real bells work with the aid of a model tower made some years ago for one of our flower festivals. (Return to top)

There in fact 7 bells in our tower, because there's a tiny bell right at the top with a long rope all the way down to the ground floor which can be tolled by someone standing on the ground floor. This is the one rung by a new priest when they're installed. (Return to top)

For our prayers, one of the hand bells was rung between each prayer 'Buddhist' style. Buddhists ring bells to create good Karma (a calm atmosphere for prayer) and to drive the Devil away. (Return to top)