October 2013

September saw the Annual Swanage Bellringers Outing.  This year we followed a slightly different format in that we had a two day outing, the theme being “Towers on the Thames from Wallingford to Henley”.

Our first tower was Whitchurch-on-Thames a delightful little church with a wooden spire founded in the 9^th C.  The belfry houses six bells, however, the spire wasn't strong enough to cope with the huge stresses caused by the weight of the bells when they were being rung so to resolve this problem, the Rector turned to an unusual source for help - The belfry now rests on four massive iron pillars manufactured for the church by the workshops of the Great Western Railway. It has to be said the cracks were rather disconcerting as was the movement of the spire as we rang!

We then went to Goring-on-Thames and Streatley.  Goring has a ring of 8 bells and, interestingly, one of the oldest bells in England can be seen inside the church, It was cast about 1290 and bears the Latin inscription: Orate pro petro exoniense episcopo. Richard de Wymbis me fist (Pray for Peter, Bishop of Exeter. Richard de Wymbis made me).  Streatley is an extremely loud ring of 6 – so loud you could hardly hear yourself think.  As is traditional on ringing outings a lovely long lunch was had at a pub in Goring.

The afternoon saw us at the 10 bells tower of St Mary le More in Wallingford followed by the 8 bell tower of St Helen’s, Benson.  The present tower of St Helen’s was completed in 1781 with eight bells hung anti-clockwise in an oak frame.  In 2009 the bells were rehung clockwise in a cast iron frame. This is the only tower I have ever been to which had fresh flowers on the table in the belfry and a luxury plush carpet!  The most interesting feature of the church though is the church clock which has two elevens as the nine was painted upside down in error and appears as a XI!

The second day of our outing started at the 8 bell tower of Wargrave followed by another 8 at Twyford.  I had set a competition for the ringers: “Which tower is the odd one out” to which Twyford was the correct answer (Rachael winning a bar of chocolate!) as it is on the River Loddon rather than the Thames.  Twyford was really quite innovative in that they had a camera on their bells so that when you rang you could see your, and all the other bells actually ringing.   The final tower of the morning was Sonning-on-Thames, a beautiful little village bedevilled by horrendous traffic! Apparently this tower is difficult to “get” so we were very lucky to ring the lovely peal of 8 there. 

We were certainly in need of a rest at this point and another lovely long lunch at a local pub followed.  We then set off for Shiplake, another delightful ring of 8, which is the local ringing centre, followed by Henley-on-Thames.  Henley is where I was born and brought up and was, to me, the one tower I was really looking forward to – however....!  the parking was horrendous, our contact there forgot to come and open up for us and, to top it all the Vicar, who was there with a set of keys, was really rude!  We eventually got in 20 minutes late – and actually it was just as well as the bells were horrid and difficult to ring! 

Our last tower was Mapledurham.  This was a fascinating little church with 6 bells and part of the Mapledurham estate.  The church is of modest size and consists of nave, chancel and south aisle.  The south aisle was built at some date between 1381 and 1395, when Sir Robert Bardolf  of Mapledurham Hosue was buried there.  When the Blount family bought the manor in 1490 the aisle became their burial place and still remains their private property.  It has been railed off from the rest of the church since the Reformation and has uniquely remained in Catholic hands ever since.  Fascinating!