Bell Ringers
Contact email: crondalltower@gmail.com
The bells
All Saints Church has a well-equipped bell tower with eight bells and a dedicated cheerful band of ringers. The bells can be heard every Sunday morning before the 9.30 service, and frequently rung for weddings and special occasions.
- Bells, 8 bells, tenor weight 716kg, full details here
- Sunday ringing 9.00 for 9.30 service
- Practice night Monday from 7.00pm, and afterwards at The Hampshire Arms
Bellringing is a non-competitive team activity that is highly stimulating intellectually and mildly demanding physically, and makes a beautiful sound. It develops mental and physical skills in a context of communal effort. Many people ring as a contribution to church life.
A short video of the bells is on Youtube here.
Teaching
The tower has excellent facilities for teaching the art of bell ringing, with cameras and a TV to view the bells while they are being rung, and a computer simulator system to enable technology assisted teaching and extended teaching sessions. The tower uses a structured teaching scheme as defined by the curriculum created by the Association of Ringing Teachers (ART).
The first 30-60 minutes of the Monday practice is focused on the newer ringers, but we also have other special dedicated practices as well.
To find out more, either send an email (crondalltower@gmail.com) or just come along on any Monday evening.
Visitors
We welcome visitors, whether non-ringers interested in the tower, the bells and bell-ringing, or ringers from other towers wishing to experience our bells. Please send an email to arrange a visit, or come to a Monday evening practice.
History of the bells
Chiming bells (swinging them through a short arc using a rope and a lever) goes back into the Middle Ages, but it was not until the seventeenth century that ringers developed the full wheel which allowed enough control for orderly ringing. In 1668 Fabian Stedman published Tintinnalogia - or the Art of Change Ringing, containing all the available information on systematic ringing. The theory of change ringing set forth by Stedman has been refined in later years but remains essentially unchanged today.
Some key dates:
- 1086 Domesday Book references the “Hundred of Crondall”
- 1170 Norman parish church of All Saints, Crondall built on site of Saxon church
- 1543 Four bells in tower over central crossing
- 1642 New frame and 2 new bells installed
- 1657 Old tower demolished
- 1659 New tower built modelled on St Matthews, Batersea. Cost £428
- 2000 Millennium project to augment and rehang the bells
- 2019 Clappers of bells 3-7 replaced with adjustable staple units
Millennium Project
Up to 2000 Crondall had 6 bells hung in the very old (older than the tower) wooden frame, with the bells hung ant-clockwise (meaning the order of the ropes in the ringing room was the opposite way round to the majority of other towers). The frame required constant attention, the bells were difficult to ring, and there was the real likelihood that in the near future they could become unsafe preventing further ringing.
The bells were augmented, restored and rehung by Whites of Appleton in the year 2000, made possible by donations and support from:
- The Guildford Diocesan Guild of Bellringers
- The Barron Bell Trust
- BOC
- The Sharpe Trust
- Many individuals in Crondall, Ewshot and surrounding area
The new bells were cast by Whitechapel, London. The treble is inscribed, "This bell was cast to commemorate the Chaundler family who have served the church and village for more than four centuries". The second is inscribed, "The people of Crondall gave this bell to commemorate the year 2000". In addition, separate clock bell and bidding bell were acquired, hung in the original wooden frame.
The project and most of the work was carried out voluntarily by the Crondall bellringers, assisted by others in the local community, under the leadership of Michael Kelly. Over 2000 hours of voluntary effort was put in by the local ringers.
Ringing World
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