COMING SOON
This website will not be updated from 30 September 2024
The link will take you to the new site as soon as it is available
The new website is www.allhallowswhitchurch.org.uk
A NEW WEBSITE
BELLS
Listen to the bells
Great Tom - video by Mike Payne
On Friday 9th September 2022, the bells of All Hallows were rung to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
They were rung for one hour in line with protocol issued under Operation London Bridge which governs the activities that take place for each day following the death of the monarch. The bells of All Hallows will have joined all those being rung across the country at the same time.
The bells were rung "fully muffled" with a muffler placed either side of the bell clapper to subdue the sound. The bells of All Hallows are occasionally rung half-muffled for an event such as a funeral, as they were for Mary Milne's funeral yesterday. Ringing the bells fully muffled is only used for an event such as the death of the sovereign. It is a very rare sound.
One bell, the tenor, is only half muffled so once in every two times it rings you can hear a clear, unmuffled ring. The tenor, which in All Hallows is named Great Tom, is the largest and lowest in pitch of all the bells and sounds after all the other bells have sounded, like a full stop at the end of a sentence. You will be able to hear this in the attached video.
Video and words by Andrew Ricketts
You’ve heard our bells: would you like to learn to ring them? We’re always looking for more ringers, and it’s not that difficult: a bit like learning to ride a bicycle, except that you’re trying to balance a bell, rather than you on your bike. Learning on both seems difficult to start with, but one day everything goes right, and you never look back.
You don’t have to be big and strong: men and women, boys and girls, from the age of nine upwards are always very welcome. Just come to the Church Room door at 7.30 any Monday evening (except Bank Holidays) and we can take it from there. If you want to know more, get in touch with Jenny James, telephone 01256 895098, or Mike Harris by email (click here) or telephone 01256 895345.
The primary purpose of the bells has always been to call the faithful to prayer. We ring from 10am every Sunday morning before our 10.30am service, but there is much more to it than that, and once you have learned to handle a bell, you will find that the ringing community will welcome you to practice nights anywhere throughout England and the English-speaking world. Two of our ten bells are over 500 years old, and our countrymen have been ringing their bells in our familiar orderly fashion since the time of Good Queen Bess.โ
Reflections on the year
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April 2023
We had plenty of ‘event’ ringing last year, with three weddings, two half-muffled funerals for ‘church family’ and three successful quarter peals (two of which were for the Queen’s Jubilee). Early in the year we had a visit from a biographer (James Wilson) who wished to take photos of Great Tom for his new book on Lord Denning. The book is now published and a copy is to be donated to the church.
OUR BELLS
TREBLE
1919
4 cwt
Mears & Stainbank Foundry, London.
In grateful remembrance of J.C.Bray : A.H.Gates : and A.Pare ringers , and other men of Whitchurch who fell in the Great War 1914-1918
No 2
1919
4 cwt
Mears & Stainbank Foundry, London.
The trebles were presented by the congregation of All Hallows Church
No 3
1748
5 cwt
Robert Catlin, London.
The gift of Colonel Shrimpton1700
New Cast 1748.R.Catlin fecit
No 4
(Pre Reformation bell. Suggested date circa 1440)
8 cwt
Wokingham foundry.
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Sancta Margarita Ora Pro Nobis.
(Saint Margaret pray for us)
No 5
1612
7 cwt
MHenry Knight, Reading.
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Elizabeth Warren gave this bell ANO 1612.H.K.
No 6
c 15th
9 cwt
Wokingham Foundry.
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Virgo parens natum fac nobis propiciatum
(O virgin parent make your son favourable to us)
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No 7
1611
8 cwt
Henry Knight, Reading.
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No 8
1724
11 cwt
William Tozer.
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Ralph Etwall + John Benham Churchwardens.William Tosier cast me
When I do toll ye Lord rest ye soul. In the year of our Lord 1724
No 9
1999
18 cwt
John Taylor, Loughborough.
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Muriel Hirst gave this bell in celebration of ten happy years at Whitchurch with her husband Professor Wallace Hirst.
To mark 2000 years since the birth of Christ.
No 10
1999
26 cwt
John Taylor, Loughborough.
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Great Tom. This bell celebrates the life and works of the Right Honourable Lord Denning QC and was cast during the year in which he celebrated his 100th birthday
ARCHIVE
This short video
produced by Mike Payne
records the visit in 1999
to Taylors bell foundry
to watch the casting process and the reinstallation of the ten bells to All Hallows Church, Whitchurch
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Click the image to watch the video
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE BELLS AT ALL HALLOWS CHURCH WHITCHURCH
written by
D A Holmes
in 1989
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Click the image to open the book